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Commuters boycott suburban trains

MUMBAI: Thousands of suburban commuters of the Virar-Borivali section of the Western Railway in Mumbai who travel to the city packed like sardines in railway compartments boycotted the trains on Monday to demand more suburban services.

A spokesman of ‘Pravasi Adhikar Aandolan Samiti’ (PAAS) said it was totally a Gandhian protest for, no train was forcibly stopped or stoned and no commuter was prevented from boarding a train. “But nobody boarded as our volunteers picketing at stations requested them to boycott the services in support of our demand for a train every five minutes during the peak hours,” said Shailendra Kamble of the PAAS.

He said that Mumbai commuters, “especially those who are commuting long distance, have to travel in inhuman conditions and hence the Human Rights Day was chosen to stage the protest.”

The increase in the frequency would reduce the inhuman overcrowding.

Western Railway spokesman Bhagwat Dahisarkar confirmed that no incident of stoning took place and no train was cancelled but he maintained that people were prevented from boarding the trains.

There was also an attempt to block the tracks at Virar at around 8.15 a.m. but police dispersed the protesters.

All political parties supported the agitation.

Since the autorickshaw-men’s unions are affiliated to different political parties, they kept off the roads and that encouraged commuters to remain home.

Protest meetings and formation of human chains were held in the Virar, Nallasopara, Vasai Road, Naigaon, Bhayandar and Mira Road towns.

The Western Railway has recently quadrupled the rail tracks between Borivali and Virar and increased the services to the section that falls north of the metropolitan city.

But the PAAS says the WR is not fully utilising the augmented infrastructure to make the commuting tolerable.

The time table shows that the section has 30 services in five peak hours of morning and that works out to a train every 10 minutes.

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