Mumbai: Travellers had to face a harrowing time on Friday morning when suburban trains were halted on the Karjat-CST corridor due to agitation at Badlapur station.


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Protests erupted at Badlapur station in neighbouring Thane district against the delay in services on Central Railway (CR).


Later, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu directed authorities to sort out the problems of passengers in Badlapur.



Services on Karjat-Ambernath route were restored from 10.55 hrs.


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


 


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 today, has been rescheduled at 1420 hrs today due to public agitation at Badlapur. 


Commuters further took to Twitter to vent their anger on the issue using hashtag Badlapur Agitation.


(With PTI inputs)