45 mins of chaos that led to a tragedy

NEW DELHI: In just 45 chaotic minutes, a flood of passengers and a series of mismanaged circumstances delayed trains, confusion over platform announcements, and overwhelmed infrastructure-transformed the busy New Delhi railway station into a death trap for 18 people on Saturday night.

- Paras Singh, Jasjeev Gandhiok, and Karn Pratap Singh

The tragedy, the deadliest at a train station since the Elphinstone Station stampede in Mumbai in 2017, unfolded across platforms 14 and 15 and a pedestrian bridge that led to it when thousands of pilgrims seeking to reach Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh and regular passengers converged in what officials described as "an unprecedented rush".

According to eyewitnesses present at the station, crowds had begun swelling abnormally at the Ajmeri Gate and Paharganj entrances around 7pm. The crowds were mostly bound for platforms 12 through 15, berths where services heading towards or passing through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are typically boarded. Much of the rush funnelled in through the Ajmeri Gate entrance abutting platform 16. A dysfunctional escalator and a blocked staircase toward platforms 14-15 created critical bottlenecks on the three-sided foot over-bridge network that services all 16 platforms.