Rail commuters to protest against delays at Diva today

Mumbai: Ten months after protesting at Diva Junction over delays in suburban trains, commuters are set to return to the railway station today, sporting black armbands, to protest against the problems they face in their daily commute.
According to rail passenger associations, the primary demands are for trains to start from Diva and Konkan-bound long-distance trains to be halted during the Ganpati festival. The protest will be held about a week before a mega protest planned by nine suburban rail passenger associations on August 22. Central Railway (CR) authorities are meeting with the passenger associations today to find a solution.
The August 14 protest will begin at 9 am at Diva station. “We have at least 1,000 black bands kept ready for distribution. This protest is solely related to the issues faced by commuters boarding from Diva,” said Aadesh Bhagat, a member of a railway passenger association.
Commuter associations are demanding CR authorities to run local trains starting from Diva, especially during peak hours. “It’s a daily struggle for commuters. If there are starting trains from Diva, it will help control crowds inside trains that start from Dombivli and Kalyan, too,” said Nandkumar Deshmukh, who heads the Federation of Suburban Railway Passengers Association. CR officials said they are examining the issues seriously and are doing everything possible to sort them out.
Rather than a physical morcha, the associations asked citizens to wear white clothes and tie a black band around them as a mark of protest. A prominent demand is to segregate Mumbai’s transportation entirely and create an umbrella unified body for various modes of transit.
Ahead of the August 22 protest, rail passenger associations have shortlisted five main points that the Indian Railways should address: improving the punctuality of local trains, which are delayed by 15-30 minutes daily, avoiding giving priority to long-distance trains over suburban local trains during peak hours, and creating a unified transport body for Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region “similar to those seen in London and Singapore for better management,” said Desai, who is part of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.
CR currently operates 1,810 daily services, with a fleet of over 140 trains. However, commuters complained that services run late, leading to overcrowding at railway stations and in the trains. According to them, delays occur because long-distance trains run on lines 3 and 4 instead of lines 5 and 6 in the Kurla-Kalyan section. The two new lines, 5 and 6, are underutilised, which compromises the local train schedule, said the commuter associations.