Central Railway's Mumbai boss transferred over Badlapur agitation

In an unprecedented event, the divisional railway manager of Central Railway's Mumbai division, Amitabh Ojha, was transferred after huge public protests at Badlapur station derailed CR's morning commute on Friday. Ojha, an 1984 batch Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers officer, has a doctorate in Information Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT-Delhi. Divisional Railway Mnager of South East Central Railway's Bilaspur division Ravinder Goyal has been made new DRM of Mumbai division, said officials. Goyal has formerly been chief freight transportation manager of Western Railway and is an old hand with Mumbai's railway network.

Officials said the slew of bad press the railways was getting, due to various issues starting mainly after the conversion of CR's lines from Direct Current to Alternating Current- latest on the Harbour line- was one of the primary reasons for the exit of Ojha.

On Friday morning, the S-6 Karjat-CST local was delayed due to a technical snag at Level Crossing Gate no.26 between Karjat and Bhivpuri Road and arrived at Badlapur 20 minutes behind schedule. Passengers at Badlapur started an agitation from 05.25am which saw lines between Ambernath and Karjat blocked for five hours till 10:50am.Due to this agitation 34 services fully cancelled and 12 services were cancelled partially. An additional 30 special trains were run between Ambernath and CSTM/ Kalyan, Vangani and Karjat, Karjat and Khopoli for the benefit of commuters though crowding of trains continued till late afternoon.