After Elphinstone Road stampede, protests on Mumbai’s central and western railways

Rail rokos held at Kalwa and Jogeshwari stations; RPF deployed to manage situation

Tuesday morning saw two separate rail roko incidents on both the western and central suburban rail network during the morning peak hours. There were no disruptions on the central line, though the western line was delayed by 10 minutes.

Protesters from the Nationalist Congress Party held a two-minute rail roko agitation during morning peak hours on Tuesday at the crowd-packed Kalwa railway station on Mumbai’s central line.

At 9 am, protestors halted one local train for two minutes and then cleared off the tracks.

The agitation was to protest the death of 23 people in the Elphinstone Road foot-over bridge (FOB) stampede on September 29, protestors said.

The rail roko did not disrupt train services as the Railway Protection Force had deployed additional staff at Kalwa station.

On the Western Railway, upset about the change in the train timetable and the unexpected halt of a Goregaon train at Jogeshwari station, angry commuters went to the station master’s cabin and protested. They allegedly threatened to climb down on the tracks and do a rail roko if the station master did not get the train going immediately. Railway officials deployed RPF personnel following this incident, which delayed services on the western line by 10 minutes.