It all began when the 9.11am Chembur-CSMT local was cancelled.
The punctuality of train services on the Harbour line took a hit after angry commuters resorted to 'rail roko' at Chembur. On Thursday morning, a local train starting from Chembur for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) got cancelled, which irked commuters standing on the platform. Several people then jumped onto the tracks and stopped train services.
It all began when the 9.11am Chembur-CSMT local was cancelled. Sources in Central Railway (CR) said that this was done as they do not have sufficient rakes with them. "Since September 19, we have called off the BHEL make of rakes as these are the ones which first experience technical glitches in times of heavy rains and water logging," said a CR official.
There are around 14 rakes of BHEL make, most of which operate on the Harbour line, out of the total 121 rakes in their fleet operating daily. This angered people waiting for this train as, during morning peak hours, trains coming from Panvel/Vashi towards CSMT are anyway crowded. After initially arguing with rail officials at Chembur station, by 9.24am people came down the tracks and stopped trains headed for CSMT.
Sources said that they managed to calm down the crowd around 9.50am. With so many people blocking the tracks, not only the up line, the down trains ran slow, too. According to CR officials, a second round of protests followed around 10 am, which lasted for another 20 minutes and disrupted peak hour services completely. CR officials, however, downplayed this incident. "The problem was there barely for 15-20 minutes," said Sunil Udasi, Chief PRO, Central Railway.
The Railway Police had to be summoned to ease the situation. They nabbed a few for creating a ruckus. Throughout the day, trains on the CSMT-Panvel route of Harbour line saw delays and cancellations. This disruption comes a day after heavy rains left railways crawling.
PREVIOUS INCIDENTS
- On Jan 12, 2017, Over 500 slum dewellers near Dombivli railway station protested against demolition of illegal slums by staging a rail roko.
- On June 8, 2017, Congress workers staged a rail roko at Ghatkopar station. Party workers jumped on tracks and halted trains.
- On Sept 1, 2017, commuters stopped train at Vasind station as locals didn’t start services on Titwala-Kasara route.
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