Angry commuters halt trains at Badlapur, Mumbai suburban services hit

Thane: Suburban rail services were disrupted after irate commuters protesting over train delay blocked tracks at Badlapur station in neighbouring Thane district on Friday morning.

The commuters started protesting after a level-crossing gate signal caused a delay in suburban services of Central Railway (CR) by over 20 minutes early in the morning.

The enraged commuters barged into the station master's office and demanded immediate action to resolve the issue.

Later, they jumped on tracks at Badlapur, stalling the movement of trains on the Central Line, which runs between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Khopoli.

"The Karjat-CST local was late by 20 minutes due to level-crossing gate signal. Passengers at Badlapur stopped the CST-bound Karjat local and Karjat-bound Thane local from 5.55 am," a Central Railway spokesperson said.

The protest also led to bunching of trains, which made a serpentine queue on tracks on the suburban route.

However, the security personnel at the railway station calmed down the agitated passengers and brought the situation under control.

Following the protest, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu directed senior railway officers to look into the matter and also appealed to passengers not to agitate.

"GM, DRM, Officers directed early morning to help passengers in #Badlapur, sort out their problems. Requesting all not to agitate, all steps taken," Prabhu tweeted following the incident.

The incident resulted in disruption of local services and trains were running late by about half-an-hour. A few Express trains of Central Railway were also rescheduled and diverted.

A statement issued by CR said that the 11301 CST-KSR Bengaluru Udyan Express, scheduled to depart at 0805 hrs on Friday, has been rescheduled at 1420 hrs due to public agitation at Badlapur.