Demolition drive leads to rail roko

A rail roko at the Nalasopara railway station affected railway services on the Western Railway (WR) during the morning peak hours, on Monday. Residents of the alleged encroachments between Nalasopara and Vasai railway stations had staged the rail roko in protest of the present demolition drive being carried out by the municipal corporation.

Chief spokesperson of the WR, Sharat Chandrayan, said six services were rescheduled and 20 services were delayed. Chandrayan pointed out that the problem was limited to a single station beyond the city limits for only a limited time-about 30-40 minutes.

“The services remained by and large smooth and functional,” Chandrayan said.

Apparently frustrated by being turned away by the municipal officials, the locals staged the protests on tracks to force attention of the administration towards their grievances. The residents have alleged that they were being denied information regarding the reason for the demolition of their homes. 

The residents of the Pragati Nagar from Nalasopara, who participated in the protest, are said to be unaware about the reason behind the demolition drive.

“We haven’t received any notice till date regarding the illegal construction of the buildings from any government department. The only thing we know that the plot no. 56, 57, 58 are reserved as green zone and not the others,” said Suresh Padwal, a resident of Pragati Nagar.

Another resident, Deepak Biswas said, “We went to the Municipal office to know the reasons but they behaved rudely and did not give us any explanation. So we protested when the officials came here to taken action.”