The ‘Wear Your White’ protest, called by 10 commuter organisations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), began at Kalyan, Thane, Asangaon, and other stations on Thursday morning. It is likely to escalate after 10 am. The associations have distributed 25,000 black ribbons to passengers to join in their protest over various demands, including decongestion, priority to local trains and setting up of a suburban railway transport body.

Siddhesh Desai, the secretary of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh — one of the oldest and biggest passenger associations — said, “We feel that the railway authority is biased towards mail and express trains and is ignoring the Mumbai local train network. The local trains get delayed owing to the long-distance trains, leading to severe crowding during the rush hour. Even the Kalwa-Airoli elevated corridor, which will decongest Thane station, is not getting completed, despite the fact that the project comes under the Chief Minister’s constituency. Passengers are angry and they can resort to protests anytime on the tracks. To prevent this, we are today protesting peacefully.”