Kamthi Railway Station’s Foot Overbridge Is So Long That Passengers Would Rather Risk Their Lives Than Use It

Nagpur, April 26, 2026.

Every single day, something deeply worrying plays out on the platforms of Kamthi Railway Station in Nagpur. Instead of using the designated foot overbridge to cross from Platform 2 to Platform 1, passengers — including elderly men and women, people carrying heavy luggage, and even families with small children — are simply stepping onto the railway tracks and crossing them on foot.

No fence stops them. No railway staff intervenes. And no solution has come — despite years of complaints, official visits, and formal requests to railway authorities.

This is not recklessness. This is what happens when a railway administration builds infrastructure so impractical that the “safe” option becomes the hardest one.

The Foot Overbridge Nobody Wants to Use

When the Nagpur Division built a new foot overbridge at Kamthi Station a few years ago, it was meant to make things better for passengers. It did the opposite.

The new bridge is disproportionately long — so long that crossing it with luggage in hand feels like a full workout. For a daily commuter carrying a bag to work, it is a significant inconvenience. For an elderly passenger with a suitcase, it is genuinely painful. For a mother managing children and bags at the same time, it is simply impossible.

So passengers do what people everywhere do when official infrastructure fails them: they find a shortcut. And in a railway station, the only available shortcut is the most dangerous one imaginable — walking across live railway tracks.

Passengers have been clear and consistent about why they do this. It is not that they do not understand the risk. They do. But when the “safe” alternative requires climbing a long, steep bridge with heavy bags under Nagpur’s punishing heat, risk begins to feel more acceptable than the official option.

A Problem Known to Everyone, Solved by Nobody

What makes this situation particularly frustrating is that it is not a secret. Railway officials know about it. Passenger associations have raised it. The Railway Advisory Committee has formally written to senior railway officers multiple times, requesting urgent remedial action.

The matter went all the way to the General Manager level. The GM of Bilaspur Division personally visited Kamthi Station and directed that the problem be resolved quickly. Specific instructions were given. Timelines were discussed.

And then — nothing changed.

The tracks are still being crossed. The overbridge is still too long. The risk is still there every single day.

This is the part that residents of Kamthi find most demoralising. It is one thing when a problem goes unheard. It is something else entirely when the problem is heard at the highest levels, acknowledged as real, and still left unaddressed. It gives passengers the clear message that their safety is simply not a priority.

Amrit Bharat Station: The Promise That Moves at a Crawl

There is a silver lining in this story — but it comes wrapped in frustration.

Kamthi Railway Station is included in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, under which hundreds of railway stations across India are being upgraded with modern facilities, improved passenger amenities, better accessibility infrastructure, and new-look interiors.

Work is indeed underway at Kamthi under this scheme. Boards have gone up. Construction activity has been visible on the premises.

But the pace of work has been so painfully slow that locals have started comparing it — unfavourably — with a tortoise. The specific infrastructure that would actually solve the overbridge problem — lifts and escalators — remains incomplete. Lift work has been stuck for a long time. Escalator installation appears to have stalled as well.

The Passenger Association and local civic groups have been making a specific, repeated demand: install working lifts and escalators at Kamthi Station as the first priority, so that passengers with luggage, elderly citizens, and differently-abled individuals can use the overbridge without the physical ordeal it currently involves. If the bridge were accessible — if you could take a lift up and a lift down — the temptation to cross the tracks would reduce dramatically.

That request has been on record for years. The lifts are still not working.

What the Law Says — and Why It Is Not Enough

Under the Railways Act, 1989, unauthorised entry onto railway tracks is a punishable offence. Passengers who cross the tracks illegally can technically be fined or prosecuted.

But enforcing this law against passengers who cross tracks at Kamthi would be a deeply unjust application of legal power. The problem was not created by the passengers. It was created by a railway administration that built an overbridge too long to be practically usable and then failed to install the accessibility features that would have made it manageable.

Punishing passengers for adapting to the administration’s failure is not a solution — it is an insult added to an injury. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and station staff, who are present at Kamthi, have not made track-crossing a major enforcement focus, perhaps because they recognise this reality themselves.

The only real solution is the one being demanded by passengers: make the overbridge usable. Install the lifts. Complete the escalator work. Make the Amrit Bharat Station upgrade deliver on its promise at Kamthi — before a preventable tragedy forces action that should have happened years ago.

What Needs to Happen — and Who Needs to Act

The situation at Kamthi Station is a clear case of a system failing its users and then expecting them to absorb the risk. Here is what railway authorities need to do urgently:

Complete the lift and escalator installation at Kamthi Station immediately, treating it as a safety-critical project rather than a routine construction activity. Station staff and RPF should be deployed specifically to discourage track crossing — not to penalise passengers, but to guide them and address their concerns on the spot. The Nagpur Division should publish a clear, time-bound roadmap for completing the Amrit Bharat Station work at Kamthi and share it publicly. The Railway Advisory Committee’s long-pending recommendations on Kamthi should receive a formal, written response from the Divisional Railway Manager with specific deadlines.

Every day that passes without action is a day in which passengers at Kamthi cross live railway tracks because they had no better option. The railway administration knows this. The question is simply whether it will act before something goes terribly wrong — or after.

Nagpur Updates Will Track This Story

Nagpur Updates has written to the Nagpur Divisional Railway Manager’s office seeking an official response on the status of lift and escalator work at Kamthi Station and the timeline for completion. We will publish their response when received.