Mumbai : Livid commuters resorted to mindless violence after a major disruption in the Central Railway services on Friday. The mob pelted stones on trains, torched three police vehicles and vandalized railway property, including 10 trains. Among those injured were two motormen and several policemen at Diva station, the hub of the flare up. The chaos also left thousands of commuters stranded with a pathetic public address system adding to their misery.
The agitation resulted in major damage to railway property worth Rs 1.5 crore: the miscreants damaged seven ATVM machines and plundered three booking counters at Diva railway station, from which they stole Rs 1.17 lakh. They also damaged a Level Crossing Gate Boom at Diva level crossing whereas at Dombivali railway station two booking counters and six ATVM machines were vandalised.
The incident constrained Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to consider the feasibility of a special train from Diva to CST, one of the demands of the local commuters. CR General Manager Sunil Kumar Sood has been directed to look into the long-pending grievances immediately.
Prabhu also admitted that Mumbai’s suburban rail network is under severe stress and has been neglected for very long. He added that its time consuming revamp will be the Railway’s top priority.
The disruption, which triggered the violent protests, occurred at Thakurli station where three pantographs of the train got entangled in the overhead wires, disrupting services on the slow track at 6.50 am, a peak hour. Services were delayed for over an hour on the suburban network and the mainline, too. What added fuel to the fire was that there was no proper announcement by the CR and the commuters were left clueless for over an hour.
At around 8.24 am, hundreds of stranded and agitated commuters descended on the tracks at Diva station, which is two stations away from Thakurli. Although the Up line was restored by 9.05 am, the crowd persisted with its agitation.
The protests led to a paralysis of services on CR and the Harbour Line which were shut for a little over four and three hours, respectively. Harbour Line was affected due to the crossing between the two lines before Kurla railway station.
The crowd on the tracks forced a CST-bound fast local to stop at Diva. This train was manned by motorman R K Chavda who got hurt during the protest. Besides his train, two other trains were also stranded at Diva.
The local police were summoned and reinforcements rushed to Diva railway station to control the situation. After unsuccessfully trying to reason with the crowd, they had to resort to a lathi charge, move the crowd from one route, and let a train on the Down fast line (towards Kalyan) pass.
At around 10.40 am, while the cops were engaged in freeing the Down fast line, a stone thrown at Chavda’s train ignited the violent eruption. Stones were pelted at the train, at the local Thane police, and at the Government Railway Police personnel, who had also reached the station by then. Apart from Chavda, seven other railway employees, seven personnel of Thane police, two Railway Protection Force personnel, four jawans from the Railway Protection Special Force and four GRP personnel were hurt.
Chavda getting injured also led to Railway unions demanding protection for motormen. They too agitated for 30 minutes at the CST railway station, as the stones that were pelted at the train at Diva were specifically aimed at the motorman’s cabin. They called off the agitation after getting an assurance of protection.
The riotous incident resulted in the complete shutdown of CR and the Harbour Line. A total of 134 services were either cancelled or partially cancelled on the two lines. The situation was brought under control by the local police, the GRP and the RPF by 12 noon and the services were slowly restored by 12.20 pm, when the first Down local left from CST. The first train to move on the main line in over six hours was the Guwahati Express that arrived at Kalyan from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT).
Allegations flew thick and fast during and after the incident: the agitated commuters accused the GRP of subjecting commuters, including women, to lathi charge. However, the Commissioner of GRP, Ravinder Singal, said, “After a call was made to the police control room, the local police rushed to the spot to control the situation. It took around 20 minutes for the Thane GRP to reach Diva and the lathi charge (by local cops) was over by then. However, stones were being pelted by the commuters continuously, before, during and after the lathi charge, too. And as such it was not the police who triggered the violence.”
Friday morning became a nightmare for all commuters, who had to go back home walking. In all 19 extra buses were started on nine routes between Thane and CST until the rail services began operating by fit and starts. In addition, extra buses were also run from Mulund, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, Andheri, Kalyan, Dombivali and other places. However, a huge traffic jam ensued and it took several hours for people to reach home.
Various cases were registered by the Thane local police, GRP and the RPF.
