The railways said on Friday that the "rail roko" agitation by farmers had "negligible" impact on its operations and that only 30 express trains, or .03 per cent, were partially affected out of a total of 12,800 passenger and freight services.
Suburban train services in Mumbai were not affected by the agitation and there was no impact on freight revenue as well, the national transporter said.
"The nationwide 'rail roko' called by some farmers' organisations on 18.02.2021 had minimal or negligible impact on train operations. In all 30 Mail trains were affected out of total 12,800 trains run by Indian Railways (including goods and passenger trains)," it said.
Several trains were able to make up for the time lost due to the agitation, it added.
"The 'rail roko' agitation passed off without any untoward incident. Train movement in all the zones was smooth after the agitation. Majority of the zones did not report a single case of any stoppage of train by the agitators.
"While dealing with the 'rail roko' agitation, utmost patience was exercised by all concerned. As reported by some of the Zonal Railways, the agitation was not done primarily by the farmers like in the State of West Bengal, the agitation was called by a political party to highlight" the death of a DYFI activist in Kolkata, it said.
{{/usCountry}}"While dealing with the 'rail roko' agitation, utmost patience was exercised by all concerned. As reported by some of the Zonal Railways, the agitation was not done primarily by the farmers like in the State of West Bengal, the agitation was called by a political party to highlight" the death of a DYFI activist in Kolkata, it said.
{{/usCountry}}"It was also reported by Zonal Railways that at several places leaders and activists of political parties were taking part along with their supporters. This was also confirmed by visuals received from Zonal Railways," a statement from the national transporter said.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions which is spearheading the protest against the Centre's three farm laws, had given the call for the 'rail roko' agitation between 12 pm and 4 pm on Thursday to press its demand for repeal of the legislations.