Mumbai, Jan 2: Suburban rail services on Central Railway were hit on Friday morning after commuters blocked the tracks at Diva station to protest against delay in services.
Trouble started at 7 am when a pantograph of a local train got entangled in the OHE- overhead power supply wire - near Thakurli station, close to Kalyan, in Thane district. Railway officials cut the power supply to the line so as to rectify the flaw and as an interim measure diverted trains to the three other active lines between Kalyan and Thane.
However, the whole operation caused a delay of 15-120 minutes during the busy morning hours. With a frequency of one train every 3-4 minutes and each train carrying around 5000 people, the delay meant that thousands of people were stuck at stations all along the route.
Soon, commuters stranded at Diva station station started protesting against the delay. They were later, reportedly, joined by local people and the mob went ahead and blocked all the railway lines passing through the station.
The blockade had an cascading affect and within an hour the entire Central Railway line was shut.
The protesters are still squatting on the tracks and are refusing to budge to let train service resume. The police resorted to a mild lathicharge but failed to get them off the tracks.
An angry mob also torched tow vehicles parked near the station, reports said.
The suburban trains are the life line of Mumbai and carry lakhs of people daily.
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