Kolkata: Commuters suffer as post-election violence throws trains off track

Abhijit Chakraborty is a chartered accountant at an Esplanade firm. In the last one week, he reached office one hour to two hours behind schedule on five out of six days.


Brijendra Kumar Mishra is a property consultant at a real estate firm. But he had to skip office twice and report late on multiple days in the past week.

Susanta Dey, employee of a private bank in Kolkata, had reported late to work on five days and reached office three hours late on one day last week.

All three, residents of Sodepur, Atpur and Barrackpore, respectively, in North 24 Parganas, were caught in the political crossfire that started in Bengal after the Trinamool’s reverses and the BJP’s gains in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls. All three take trains to their places of work in Kolkata and have been victims of at least 10 hold-ups that occurred only on the Sealdah main line ever since the poll results were declared.

Train

services in the Eastern Railway’s Sealdah division have been disrupted since May 20, owing to rail blockades by protesters at Kankinara and clashes between Trinamool and BJP supporters in Bhatpara, where assembly bypolls were held on May 19. On May 20, clashed continued for over two hours from 7am, leading to cancellation of at least 10 trains and delaying more than 13 trains. The next day, unidentified men hurled a crude bomb outside Kankinara railway station and blocked the tracks between 8.45am and 12noon leading to further cancellation of several local trains and delaying at least three express trains.

Minor blockades continued through the week barring Thursday, when results were declared. The trouble reached its peak on Saturday morning when BJP protesters blocked tracks at five places under Kalyani- Ranaghat-Krishnanagar section — at Madanpur, Simurali, Chakdah, Badkulla, Pyaradanga and Birnagar — protesting against the murder of a BJP worker at Chakdah on Friday night. The blockades continued for more than two hours hitting the peak-hour rail traffic. As a result, thousands of daily commuters, who depend on trains to travel between home and workplace in Kolkata, had to suffer.

“Nowadays, train blockades have become a regular affair. No matter what happens, trains are targeted. For the past one week, I have not been able to reach office on time and have been forced to stand in long queues and travel in packed trains. But, does anybody care?” asked an Susanta Dey, a senior banking executive.

Equally frustrated and upset was Rubi Paul (22), a resident of Belghoria, who even had to work from home after reporting late in office for almost the entire week. “This route is itself notorious for trains arriving late. Add to that the recent protests on tracks over every issue by political parties,” said Paul, an academic content writer at a Salt Lake firm.

According to regulars, train disruption hits movement of vehicles on road too, with taxis and app cabs charging double the fare and buses getting too packed. “The usual fare in an app cab between Titagarh and Esplanade is around Rs 350. Whenever the train services are hampered, there’s a steep rise in fares,” said Brijendra Kumar Mishra, who could not go to his office in Kolkata on two days last week.

Railway officials have time and again pleaded with protesters and political parties not to block train tracks. “For people living in North 24 Parganas, trains form the most crucial part of connectivity between their home and workplace in Kolkata. We had urged the parties not to resort to any such blockade. Perhaps, they do so to garner publicity. But thousands suffer,” said a retired railway official.