Badlapur Protest Disrupts Indian Railways Services: The rail roko protest at Badlapur station in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Tuesday over the alleged sexual abuse of two girl students of a kindergarten led to the diversion of 12 long-distance trains via alternate routes, while authorities arranged buses for stranded commuters. As many as 30 suburban trains were partially cancelled, and the Railways approached the state and civic transport bodies to ply extra buses.

As protesters, including several women, came onto railway tracks and blocked traffic, local train services between Ambernath and Karjat stations were suspended from 10.10 am. The protest turned violent as agitators vandalised the school, where the alleged incident occurred last week, and also indulged in stone-pelting at the Badlapur railway station, police said.

At least 12 mail-express trains, including Solapur-CSMT Vande Bharat Express, were diverted via Diva-Panvel-Karjat stations till 5 pm, said Swapnil Nila, chief public relations officer (CRPO) of Central Railway. As many as 30 suburban trains between Ambernath and Karjat/ Khopoli have been cancelled so far, he said.

The number is likely to increase exponentially during the evening peak hour, he said. The Railways has approached the state and municipal transport bodies to run 100 extra buses for commuters between Kalyan and Karjat, and they have received 55 buses, Nila said.

According to railway sources, Kolhapur-bound Koyna Express from Mumbai was held up for four hours between Ambernath and Badlapur stations. Around 1 pm, the train was reversed and diverted via the Kalyan-Diva-Panvel-Karjat route.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) deployed additional personnel at stations on the Kalyan-Karjat section of Central Railway, he said.

A senior divisional security manager, along with 60 jawans and 10 officials of the RPF, are closely monitoring the situation at Badlapur station with the Government Railway Police (GRP) staff.