'Stampede-like situation' on Mumbai Metro Line 2A station, say passengers; officials downplay issue

MUMBAI: Passengers travelling on Mumbai Metro Line 2A between Dahisar and Andheri West on Friday claimed a "stampede-like situation" prevailed for some time at Andheri West station, though officials said it was "overcrowding" caused by two trains arriving at the same time.

Social media users shared videos of the crowding and also claimed lack of metro rail staff to control the situation. Passengers claimed the common access between Metro Line 2A and Line 1 (Ghatkopar-Andheri-Versova) was closed due to overcrowding, which they said worsened the situation.

"Stampede situation due to sudden shutdown of access between Andheri West Metro station and DN Nagar Metro station. There was no staff for crowd control and no planning," Prasad Patil, a user on X said while sharing a video.

The video showed a crowded station concourse with passengers struggling to enter and exit.

"I think the crowding was due to the closure of direct transit from Andheri West Metro Station to DN Nagar station. If you must close the transit, please plan for crowd management and control," Patil added.

"It is not a good day to travel by Metro," wrote user Preeti, while another user, Twinkle, asked "Why is #MumbaiMetro acting like a #LocalTrain today?"

Mumbai Metro One, which operates the Ghatkopar-Andheri-Versova line, said a technical fault on Line 2A caused a surge of commuters at DN Nagar station.

Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL) officials said services were disrupted due to a signalling issue, but the incident occurred when services resumed.

MMMOCL operates metro services on Line 2A between Andheri West and Dahisar, as well as Line 7 between Dahisar and Andheri East (Gundavali).

"Due to an issue in signalling, a metro train was briefly halted between Gundavali and Mogra for 4-5 minutes. Once resolved, two metro trains arrived at Gundavali within a minute, leading to crowding in the holding area. However, we managed to clear the rush swiftly," a MMMOCL official said.