MSRTC commuters stage rail roko at Nalasopara railway station

Pictures/Atul Kamble

Angry commuters from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus depot stormed into the Western Railway station at Nalasopara on Wednesday morning and staged a rail roko, demanding travel by local train as MSRTC abruptly announced limiting its buses for essential workers only.

The crowd became unmanageable as they jumped on the rail tracks and stopped a passing train, delaying it by four minutes. While most of the protestors were dispersed from the station, the protest continued at the bus depot even after MSRTC officials opened access to the buses. Local officials have now called the State Reserve Police Force and additional forces to bring the situation under control.

"People arrived on the platform at Nalasopara station (approx 200) at around 8:25 am as state transport bus services were disrupted. A local train VR -37 was stopped by commuters at Nalasopara platform 1 from 8.27 am to 8.31 am. Commuters were counselled by RPF/GRP that special suburban services are being operated only for the staff of essential categories as notified. The situation was normalised by 8.45 am," Western Railway's chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.

MSRTC officials said there has been too much pressure on Nalasopara bus depot and besides essential workers, all other workers have been commuting making it difficult to maintain social distancing.

An MSRTC spokesperson was quoted by IANS as saying that usually around 150 state transport buses are operated there daily, which are now being augmented to 300 on Wednesday to clear the unexpected rush, promising another 200 to be added in the next couple of days, totalling 500 services daily.

Commuters from Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad have been demanding that the local train services - the lifeline of the country's commercial capital - be resumed immediately or more categories of workers be permitted to travel by the special services being operated since a month.

Interestingly, these four districts - which comprise the sprawling Mumbai Metropolitan Region - has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and fatalities.

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