A shocking 1545 people have already died on the tracks since January this year and the past records on death on the tracks is equally startling.

More people are killed on railway tracks in Mumbai than in road accidents. Last year 339 persons were killed on the road while a whopping 2285 people were run over by local trains. That's about the normal carrying capacity of a nine-car rake.

At least four persons are run over and killed every day on nearly 200 kilometres of Western and Central Railway lines. Apart from the bereavement, a quarter of daily delays are caused by such deaths.

Briefcase clutching white collar employees, mobile wielding businessmen, school children, housewives with babies in their arms, are all part of a daily cavalcade which move on railway tracks with theease one would walk on a footpath.

``It's sheer lethargy on the part of commuters who use the tracks to save time,'' says Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Vinod Asthana. He explains how a motorman has to disembark, call a railway policeman, remove the body, put it on the train and take it to the next station. This results in the loss of half an hour. Meanwhile, the cascading effect is felt right down the line with local trains being stranded or diverted.

Trespassers killed can broadly be classified into residents of track hugging hutments, commuters who fall off trains and those that cross the tracks.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) divides these deaths into three categories, accidents, suicides and the rare case of the homicide which is passed off as an accident after the body is flung on the tracks to destroy evidence. A case in point being the recent rape and murder of a girl in Oshiwara whose body was left on the tracks.

``They're willing to gamble with their lives just to save afew minutes,'' says Superintendent of Police (GRP) K Ramachandran.

And the consequences of crossing the path of a local train weighing a few thousand tonnes hurtling at over 60 kmph, are truly heart breaking. Like the case of the railway employee who lost his wife and two children at Mumbai Central two months ago. Even the police are not above playing this deadly game of Russian Roulette. Three months ago, a GRP constable was run over by a local train just outside his police station at Vasai road, as he attempted to cross the tracks.

Then there are the veteran track walkers, who've been doing it for years. Railway officials say some are so experienced that they crouch low the moment they pass between two moving trains, knowing that the air turbulence could fling them onto the tracks.

The solutions are few and government agencies term this as a social problem more than anything else.

Trespassing is an offence under Section 147 of the Indian Railway Act punishable with a fine of Rs 1000 or imprisonmentfor six months. But enforcing this is impossible in the face of the sheer number of people that cross tracks.

The railways have already begun an awareness campaign, consisting of witty posters made by Mario Miranda, advertisements and TV spots illustrating the hazards of crossing tracks.