Mumbai: ‘Wear White’ protest to highlight local rail commuter demands

Ten commuter organisations have called for a 'Wear Your White' protest on Thursday, to highlight their various demands over decongestion, priority to local trains and setting up of a suburban railway transport body.

"On August 22, all major railway commuters' organisations will be joining the 'Wear Your White' protest to support the demands. We feel that the railway authority is biased towards mail and express trains and is ignoring the Mumbai local train network. Today, Mumbai will unite for safer Mumbai local train transport," said Siddhesh Desai, vice-president of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh - one of the oldest and biggest passenger associations.

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A marathon three-hour meeting between numerous passenger associations and the divisional railway manager of Central Railway Mumbai last week failed to reach any consensus with the railways only giving a positive response to the demand for new suburban stations Guravali and Parsik. Association leaders have already been slapped with legal notices and warned against creating any disruption of rail services on August 22, during the protest.

Railway officials said to reduce congestion in Mumbai suburban corridors, Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)-II costing Rs 8,087 crore, MUTP-III costing Rs 10,947 crore and MUTP-IIIA costing Rs 33,690 crore had already been sanctioned to meet the future demands of passengers and works are under various stages of construction.

The five demands

>> A separate joint authority (Transport for Mumbai) should be formed for the entire Mumbai local service from Central Railway, Western Railway, Harbour, Trans Harbour, MRVC

>> First preference should be given to Local trains instead of mail and express during morning and evening peak hours

>> On tracks constructed for local trains, only local trains should be run, mail express trains should be stopped on these immediately (Kurla to Kalyan/Thane to Diva Track)

>> Projects stalled for years should be completed on a war footing without any delay and railways should announce the project completion date (Airoli Link Road, 5-6th track; road overbridge at Diva/Titwala, CBTC-cab signalling; Kalyan-Asangaon, Kalyan-Badlapur 15 coach Local service, additional railway line)

>> A ‘Code Red' alert should be declared if local service is stopped due to mechanical or technical reasons, derailment or any other reason. At such times, additional local trains should ply on mail train tracks

Ten organisations joining protest

>> Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh
>> Upnagariy Railway Pravasi Mahasangh
>> Thane Railway Pravasi Sangh
>> Kalwa Parsik Pravasi Sangh
>> Dahanu Vaitarana Pravasi Sewabhavi Sanstha
>> Tejaswini Mahila Railway Pravasi Sanghatna
>> Dombivali Thakurli Kopar Railway Pravasi Sanghatna
>> Diva Pravasi Sanghatna
>> Sangharsh Kokan Railway Pravasi Sanghatna
>> Mumbra Pravasi Sanghatna