Mumbai: The railways suffered a revenue loss of over Rs 6.11 crore due to acts of vandalism and disruption by those who tried to enforce the bandh on Wednesday to protest the violence in Pune during the bicentennial anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.
The central railway (CR) bore losses to the tune of Rs 2 crore due to damage caused to trains and other property across 72 of its suburban stations. It experienced a further loss of Rs 4 crore owing to goods trains being rendered unoperational by the bandh. A CR official said, “We lost an estimated Rs 2 crore in damages and Rs 4 crore in revenue from goods services.”
The western railway (WR) underwent a loss of only Rs 5,000 due to acts of vandalism however it endured a further loss of Rs 11 lakh owing to lower sale of tickets than the daily average. A WR official said, “We saw very limited cases of vandalism as compared to the CR. There were a few stray incidents of stone pelting on local trains at Virar and one at Nalasopara.”
Further, the railway on Wednesday saw 29 rail-rokos across all lines, cancellation of a total 300 services, and delay in over 600 services. Incidents of vandalism at Kanjurmarg coupled with running of local trains on both CR and WR led to unexpected losses.
Fifteen cases of vandalism were registered against unknown persons on Wednesday itself, and officials are scouring CCTV footage to catch the culprits. WR chief security commissioner A.K. Singh said, "We will be looking at all available footage and will then take a call about what is to be done.”
Both CR and WR had the RPF force on alert on Wednesday.
