Irate Ambernath commuters threaten to stage rail-roko

Mumbai: A day after commuters staged a rail-roko at Titwala station for over two-and-a-half hours throwing Central Railway (CR) services out of gear, commuters at Ambernath have threatened to hold a similar protest to get their demands heard.

The incident occurred at Ambernath on Thursday morning when a man threatened similar consequences if CR did not improve punctuality of its services. The man, one Prabhakar, said, “I will also take my grouse onto the tracks if the railway allows fast trains to halt at Diva. We cannot get into fast trains at Ambernath itself so adding Diva in the mix will make our life worse.”

CR, now wary of the slightest threat, has decided that Deccan Express which passes the station at around 8.10 am will be asked to hold back while a local that passes around the same time is given precedence for the sake of commuters. An official on condition of anonymity revealed, “We have appointed an additional motorman and guard at the station to make sure that if something untoward happens, they will be able to help or take over in place of their colleagues”.

Wednesday’s rail-roko at Titwala led to 40 CR services being cancelled and 70 delayed. CR divisional railway manager Ravindra Goyal said the incident was being looked into.