MUMBAI: The death toll in the stampede on a foot-over-bridge (FOB) linking two railways stations here has gone up to 23 with a critically injured person succumbing at the KEM hospital on Saturday.
The dean of the hospital, Avinash Supe, said the deceased was identified as Satyendra Kumar Kanojia who was in his late forties.
"The patient was put on a ventilator as soon as he was admitted to the hospital. We tried to save him but he succumbed to internal injuries," the dean told PTI.
The body would be handed over to his relatives after completion of the routine procedures, he said.
Thirty-eight injured persons were admitted in the hospital, Supe said.
The tragedy took place yesterday around 10.40 a.m. when the over-bridge, linking Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban stations, became overcrowded with people taking shelter from a heavy downpour.
The bridge is used by lakhs of people to commute to the commercial area with high-end corporate and media offices.
On the other hand, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said FOBs, earlier considered only a "passenger amenity", would now be a "mandatory" aspect of all the railway stations in the country.
The announcement came after marathon meetings held by the minister with senior railway board officials since Friday in Mumbai.
"We are turning a 150-year-old convention on its head, hereafter, FOBs (Foot Over Bridges) will be deemed mandatory not a passenger amenity (sic)," Goyal had tweeted earlier.
Earlier, only the first FOB at a station was considered "essential" and the subsequent ones "passenger amenity".
In a statement released after a high-level meeting yesterday, the railways also said in order to enhance its monitoring mechanism, CCTV cameras would be installed in all the suburban trains in Mumbai within 15 months and subsequently, across the country.