Passengers protest at Navsari station

Representational Pic

Months after replacing the conventional rake of ValsadDahod Intercity Express with LHB coaches, the Western Railway Wednesday decided to restore the previous arrangement of conventional rakes, after angry passengers stopped the train movement at Navsari station in Gujarat, officials said. Passengers came on the tracks and stopped 12929 Valsad-Dahod Intercity Express at 8.30 am, a Western Railway (WR) official said, adding that the protest affected the movement of other trains coming from up and down directions.

However, the track was cleared at 12.10 pm after railway authorities assured passengers to meet their demands, the official said. "Train movement has been restored & normalised at Navsari Station which was affected due to public agitation," the WR said in a tweet. The passengers were demanding the restoration of the old and conventional rakes in the train, which they feel could accommodate more passengers.

WR chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar told PTI that the railway administration has agreed to meet demands of the passengers. He added that old conventional rakes will be replaced in the coming days. "Within a week, the replacement of new rakes with conventional rakes one will begin and existing chair car coached will be replaced with general coaches," Bhakar said.

The sudden agitation, however, inconvenienced other passengers who took to twitter to express their anguish. "@PiyushGoyal I had to reach Nadiad by 12 noon for my work. We are hearing announcement that there is some agitation at navsari st and so all trains are running late. It's real pity that u guys can't run the premium train like Shatabdi on time in any situation," tweeted Hetal Mehta, a passenger. "All trains stuck near Navsari, near surat. 2 hours now, students missing their exams, we missing our important meetings,.. why should we suffer because of politics.. please help," tweeted another passenger.

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