By Priyanka Dhomse. Photographs by Santosh Gupta
The impacts of the conflict occurred in the Bhima Koregaon was witnessed on the Wednesday too, as shops remained closed all in the city, even the transport modes were badly affected, leading to inconvenience to daily commuters in Mumbai.
According to the official, the local trains were stranded at many stations as the protesters were trying stage a 'rail roko' disrupting the local services, while the GRP and RPF team on both the Central and Western Railways tried to move out the protesters from the station premise.
Stations like Thane, Ghatkopar, Kalyan, Kanjurmarg, Govandi on Central line and Palghar, Virar, Nalasopara, Dahisar, Malad, Goregaon, Andheri, Mahim, Dadar and Elphinstone Road stations on Western Railway were spotted with the large number of protesters blocking the local services.
A senior official from Central Railway said, “There were agitations at Diwa, Titwala and Vasind too. However, the Railway staff, RPF and GRP officials cleared the path immediately and train services were brought back to normalcy. The 'Rail roko' at various stations disrupted the services of local badly affecting the late running of locals for more than a hour.”
During the noon hours yesterday, many commuters complained about the blank indicators at stations, leaving them in confusion as few CSMT bound trains were converted to down side at Thane and Mulund stations.
“The agitations at above mentioned stations led to the cancellations of many services and delay in the running of locals. Out of 820 local services running on suburban line, 110 services were cancelled,” said Sunil Udasi, Chief Public Relation Officer of Central Railway.
“Senior railway officials were regularly monitoring the situation and security forces made all possible efforts to normalize the situation. Due to this, about 60 suburban services of Western Railway were cancelled, while more than 200 suburban services were delayed by 10-15 minutes. While only 4 trips of AC locals were operated and remaining services were cancelled,” said an official from Western Railway.
As number of trains were stranded disrupting the local services, many office goers on Central line were seen getting down half way and walking back to their home through railway tracks. “It's been more than two hours I am standing for the CSMT local, but as the indicators are blank with no announcements, I am forcefully going back home skipping my office,” said Sandhya Raut from Kalyan.
Tracks between Thane, Mulund and Kalwa had commuters walking back home due to disruption of local services during afternoon hours. Residents staying near stations like Thane, Kalwa and Kanjurmarg were seen serving the drinking and biscuits to the commuters walking on tracks. “Since 12 pm, we were witnessing commuters in large numbers, walking on the tracks, as all the shops and food stalls were also closed. So we decided to provide water and biscuits to them,” said one of the members among the local team serving water to the commuters.
The glass of the ticket counter at Dombivli station was damaged by the protesters, followed by the 'Rail roko' at platform number 1,3 and 5 at around 1 PM. The agitation at Dombivli station disrupted the local service for around 15 minutes.