Social media impact: Indian Railways wakes up to travellers’ Diva woes

Constant complaints made by people and passenger associations has forced the Railways to expedite the Thane-Diva 5, 6 lines, whose perennial incomplete status has created several problems. On Monday, two people who trespassed onto the tracks on their two-wheeler at Diva level crossing gate died after being hit by a long distance train.

This and other such cases have flared up the issue. On Monday, at a high-level meeting of the top brass of the Indian Railways, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman of the Railway Board, questioned the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd (MRVC) about the delays in implementing this vital project.

Over the past several months, the travellers and passenger associations have been tweeting and posting about the delays in the Rs 440 crore project. According to the grievances posted, people are exasperated because of the delays and people dying on tracks, either due to crowded trains or while crossing the tracks.

There are six rail lines between Kurla LTT-Thane and Kalyan-Diva, but its the missing link between Thane-Diva where only four lines are available. Due to this, a bottleneck is created, which affects the punctuality of trains. The 5, 6 lines will specifically cater to long distance trains, thus segregating the suburban section completely.

“We have been writing to the Railways and other authorities on their social media accounts almost everyday. The local civic bodies are also equally responsible for the pending work of road over bridges at Thane and Kalwa which is causing lot of inconvenience to commuters at large,” said Siddesh Desai, member of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.

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At the meeting held on Monday at Central Railway’s Headquarters at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the planning body of MRVC was questioned by the CR over the delays. Sources said that there was big argument among the bureaucrats from the two agencies over the delay on the two additional lines, the work on which started in 2008.

Source: DNA