With Central Railway (CR) suspending its hill railway services between Neral and Matheran, tourists visiting this tiny hill station have been left high and dry, with rickshaw pullers as well as horse owners hiking the rates to almost double. Worried of tourists being fleeced an elected representative has demanded that prepaid system for both horses and rickshaw be implemented at the earliest.

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Manoj Khedkar, Leader of Opposition, Matheran hill station municipal council said that they were receiving several complaints from tourists regarding the overcharging and hence he demanded that first the rates should be standardised and implemented strictly as well as the hill station administration should also immediately start a prepaid system at Matheran for both horses as well as rickshaws.

"Matheran's economy runs on tourism and surprisingly since April till date we have been seeing very low tourists flow that too in spite of it being summer vacation. One of the biggest reasons is overcharging and harassment of tourists by horse owners. Hence, both these demands need to be implemented at the earliest specially keeping in mind that the train services has now been suspended," he said adding that he was even planning to start an agitation if administration ignores his pleas.

Asha Kadam, who heads the Matheran Ashwapal Sanghatan that has around 200 horse owners with it, agreed to the overcharging but blamed it on the horse owners from Neral who were operating in Matheran. "There are several horse owners who are operating illegally in Matheran and at times even charging Rs1,000 per person per horse for what ideally should not be more than Rs250 and it was sheer fault of the police as well as Matheran hill station administration that has not been able to take strict action against such errant people to ensure tourists are not fleeced."

In fact, Khedkar informed that prepaid system for horses and rickshaws was tried for a month when he was the president of the municipal council in 2008 and it worked well till cops stopped supporting it and some groups created ruckus.

"There have been boards put up stating the fixed rates but its never followed. A token system should be introduced at Dasturi Naka so that tourists visiting this hill station should be able to pay at the counter and a horse can be allocated and similarly it can be applied to rickshaws. But for all this there is a need of a strong will from the administration, which unfortunately does not exists," he said.

Meanwhile, Pawan Chandak, superintendent of the revenue department for Matheran, said: "We have not received any complaints so far from tourists but if we get we will take strict action against the horse owners. Also now that the train services have been suspended we will seek help of cops to ensure tourists are not fleeced."

Railway operation suspended till further notice.

After being derailed for the second time in a week, officials from Central Railway (CR) have informed that the services have been suspended till further notice."There is a concern about the derailment that has occurred for the second time and hence it has been decided not to take any chances and a detailed inquiry as well as survey is being conducted and till it is over, the services has been suspended," shared chief PRO for CR Narendra Patil.