Blocked roads, brakes on trains paralyze Thane

THANE: The morning drill of lakhs of office-goers, students and the business community of Thane was disrupted by marching mobs that jammed the streets and railway tracks on Wednesday.
The day began with skeletal groups of youths holding the blue Republican Party of India (RPI) flag attempting to block the city's exit point at Eastern Express Highway, while another group trooped on to railway tracks to stop the 7.50am Thane local. The protesters' attempts were handled efficiently by lathi-wielding policemen though.

The scattered groups then converged and post-noon, mobs attacked TMT buses, disrupted train services three times and laying siege on the busy Ghodbunder Road.

Bikers were seen riding around the city pelting stones at vehicles, damaging buses and assaulting autorickshaw drivers ferrying Thaneites to nearby destinations. Some even burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Highways and streets of the working class neighbourhood some 35km from Mumbai lay desolate throughout the day as protesters blocked the main roads, including the Kharegaon toll naka, Mulund check naka and Anand Nagar toll naka that connect the lake city to Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Vasai and Mira Road.

Several interior pockets such as Brahmand where traffic was diverted saw long jams.

The busy LBS Road, Teen Hath Naka and Cadbury Junction as well as other pockets such as Dhokali witnessed groups of protesters halting traffic by stopping buses and asking commuters aboard to get off, deflating tyres, shutting shops and forcing auto drivers to stop plying.

After the first three-minute-long rail roko, the protesters made similar attempts at Kalwa and Diva. Around 10am, the mob of protesters staged another rail roko at Thane railway station, which took cops half an hour to clear. They then went on to force shut MSRTC depot and damage TMT buses. While the MSRTC services were resumed later, TMT called in all its buses.

Many of those stranded were left with no choice but to walk to their destinations. A Naupada-based senior citizen Rohini Dutta, on her way to catch a flight to Bengaluru, was stuck in the chaos for five hours and had to eventually cancel her ticket.