‘Protest journey’ for services to Dahanu troubles commuters

Hundreds of people undertook a “protest journey” from Dahanu to Virar in a shuttle train and then boarded the 11:27am Virar-Churchgate local to protest the Western Railway’s (WR) “apathy”.

The protestors blamed the WR for not running enough trains which leads to excessive crowds and alleged that it was basic human rights violation of 35 lakh commuters on the line. December 10 is observed as the International Human Rights Day.

They demanded a direct train between Churchgate and Dahanu stations every 30 minutes and a service to Virar every three minutes.

Regular commuters during the morning rush hour were delayed and inconvenienced due to this drama. Slogan-shouting protestors got on the local at all the stations with the electronic and print media in tow to cover to event. Personnel from the city and railway police joined in to monitor the protest, leaving no space for commuters.

Anjali Nikam, a commuter who catches the 12.06pm train at Borivli, missed it. “I get into this particular train everyday, but today there was no space,” she complained.

As the train reached Churchgate station, protestors were bundled up in vans and taken to Azad Maidan. They had plans to protest outside the WR general manager’s office.

“They are not allowing us to protest peacefully. This is not fair,” said KK Prakashan, member of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the organisers.

The leaders of the protest came back to the station in the afternoon and insisted on meeting the general manager. When they learnt that the manager was away in New Delhi, they asked the railways to give an assurance in writing that they would meet a delegation at a later date.  

Deputy commissioner of police (WR) Anil Tamaichekar said, “There were 500 to 600 protestors. The railway police did not register any case.”

Sharat Chandrayan, WR chief spokesperson said, “There are enough trains. We have 19 pairs of trains that go up to Dahanu Road and 26 mail express that stop en route. Of the 1,210 local services run on WR, about 30% ply on the Borivli-Virar section.”

On the protestors’ demand of starting 15-car services, he said: “The Virar-Dahanu section has only two lines and will require another set of lines for more frequency. An increase in Virar-Dahanu trains is possible only after more trains are available.”

(Inputs from Rajendra Aklekar & Dayanand Kamath)