The medical room–cum–pharmacy shop at Mumbra station has downed shutters, blocked by piles of debris. The designated ambulance spot lies deserted, with ongoing Amrit Bharat work occupying the space. When the accident occurred at Mumbra at 8.58 am on Monday, there was no emergency medical service available to ferry injured commuters promptly.

After the Bombay High Court ruled that ambulances must be made available outside all suburban railway stations, the state government, on February 28, 2014, had instructed Pune-based BVG India Limited to operate the ‘108’ emergency service across Maharashtra. This included stationing a fully functional ambulance with a doctor outside each railway station. So why was there no ambulance at Mumbra station?

Dr Dnyaneshwar Shelke, chief operating officer of BVG India’s 108 ambulance service, told mid-day, “There is no ambulance at Mumbra, and we checked our logbooks — there were no emergency calls made to us from there.”