Passenger associations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region demand decongestion, priority to local trains and setting up of a suburban railway transport body. The associations have distributed 25,000 black ribbons to passengers to join in their protest. They say the protests will go on till the situation changes on the ground
Women commuters on the AC local train wear black ribbons to protest over the demands put forth by the passengers' associations.
The ‘Wear Your White’ protest, called by 10 commuter organisations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), began at Kalyan, Thane, Asangaon, and other stations on Thursday morning. It is likely to escalate after 10 am. The associations have distributed 25,000 black ribbons to passengers to join in their protest over various demands, including decongestion, priority to local trains and setting up of a suburban railway transport body.
ADVERTISEMENT
Siddhesh Desai, the secretary of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh — one of the oldest and biggest passenger associations — said, “We feel that the railway authority is biased towards mail and express trains and is ignoring the Mumbai local train network. The local trains get delayed owing to the long-distance trains, leading to severe crowding during the rush hour. Even the Kalwa-Airoli elevated corridor, which will decongest Thane station, is not getting completed, despite the fact that the project comes under the Chief Minister’s constituency. Passengers are angry and they can resort to protests anytime on the tracks. To prevent this, we are today protesting peacefully.”
He added that the movement will go on till the situation changes on the ground. "We have begun distributing black ribbons at Asangaon, Kalyan and other stations and have received a good response from Mumbaikars who were requested to wear white attire with black ribbons. This is a movement and it will go on till things change," said Desai.
A marathon three-hour meeting between the passenger associations and the divisional railway manager of Central Railway Mumbai last week failed to reach any consensus, with the railways only giving a positive response to the demand for new suburban stations, Guravali and Parsik. Association leaders have already been slapped with legal notices and warned against creating any disruption of rail services on August 22, during the protest.
Railway officials said to reduce congestion in the suburban corridors, the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)-II costing Rs 8,087 crore, MUTP-III costing Rs 10,947 crore and MUTP-IIIA costing Rs 33,690 crore had already been sanctioned to meet the future demands of passengers and works are under various stages of construction.
Madhu Kotian, the president of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, said, “For the past several years, I have been working for the welfare of passengers. I have observed that in the past one to one-and-a-half years, the local trains are not on schedule. Thus, lakhs of passengers have to face severe difficulties while travelling. So we have called for a protest today, August 22, by wearing black ribbons. We are distributing the black ribbons to passengers and they are supporting the protest.”
The associations have demanded a separate joint authority (Transport for Mumbai) the entire local service from Central Railway, Western Railway, Harbour, Trans-Harbour, and Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC). They also said that the first preference should be given to local trains instead of mail and express during morning and evening peak hours and only local trains should be run on the already constructed tracks. Mail express trains should be stopped on immediately on the Kurla-Kalyan and Thane-Diva routes, they demanded.
The passenger bodies further said that the projects stalled for years should be completed on a war footing without any delay and railways should announce the project completion date for Airoli Link Road, 5-6th track; road overbridge at Diva/Titwala, communications-based train control (CBTC)-cab signalling; Kalyan-Asangaon, and Kalyan-Badlapur 15 coach local service.
A ‘Code Red’ alert should also be declared if a local service is stopped owing to mechanical or technical reasons or derailment or any other cause. At such times, additional local trains should ply on mail train tracks, they said.
The 10 organisations joining the protest are Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, Upnagariy Railway Pravasi Mahasangh, Thane Railway Pravasi Sangh, Kalwa Parsik Pravasi Sangh, Dahanu Vaitarana Pravasi Sewabhavi Sanstha, Tejaswini Mahila Railway Pravasi Sanghatna, Dombivali Thakurli Kopar Railway Pravasi Sanghatna, Diva Pravasi Sanghatna, Sangharsh Kokan Railway Pravasi Sanghatna, and Mumbra Pravasi Sanghatna.
(With inputs from Rajendra B Aklekar)
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
