MUMBAI, SEPT 11
With everyone anxious to get to Goa for ‘Chovoth’, passengers have been adopting unique tactics to find place on trains coming to Goa for the festival. For some of these commuters, the 13-hour passenger train journey from Diva to Madgaon took almost 30 hours!
The usually-deserted Diva Junction, near Thane, was abuzz with activity on Thursday evening. The platform was overflowing with passengers, and even more kept streaming in. Most of them wanted to go to their villages in Konkan and to Goa for the biggest festival of the year.
Around Ganesh Chaturthi, the Diva-Madgaon Passenger is always packed. But this time the crowd was double, as ‘Chovoth’ coincided with Eid. To board the train, which was scheduled to leave at 6.20 am on Friday from Diva, passengers arrived at the station as early as 8.30 pm on Thursday.
Almost 10,000 people with baggage and children were ready to hop onto the train when it came in from Madgaon. It arrived at 10 pm, 45 minutes behind schedule. Passengers who jumped onto the train as it pulled into the station, hoping to find vacant seats, were disappointed. Most of them were already occupied by those who had boarded the train at Panvel, at 9 pm.
The train halts at Diva Junction till 12.30 am, then returns to Panvel and halts there till 4.45 am to fill water and recharge the power generator. Then it chugs back to Diva to pick up passengers, and finally depart for its destination, Madgaon, at 6.20 am.
But at Diva Junction on Tuesday night, 10,000-odd passengers squeezed themselves into the 10 bogies whose seating capacity is not more than 2,000. A few found seats, others sat on the luggage racks or on the floor, but most passengers stood in the passageway; many of them on one leg.
Then, the lights and fans in the train were shut off. In the dark, the janata was just beginning to realise that the train was infested with mosquitoes. But getting off was not an option… A few smart ones had brought mosquito coils, which they lighted till the train started moving towards Panvel after midnight.
The lights and fans came on, but only till the train arrived at Panvel. They pleaded with the station master to switch on the power, but he said the lights had to be turned off to charge the power generator. At Panvel, even more commuters boarded the train, and scuffles broke out for space.
At 4.45 am, the train finally left for Diva and arrived at the station at 6 am. The lights and fans came on, and passengers heaved a high of relief. But there was a nightmare ahead. For, waiting at the station were another 10,000 passengers. Less than half managed to squeeze into the already over-packed bogies. Emergency exits were used to push kids into the compartments, followed by luggage. Even the toilets were full, and passengers were sitting on the roof.
The engine driver intervened and called the police, who asked the rooftop commuters to alight. Disappointed, many passengers returned home.
The jampacked Diva-Madgoan Passenger finally started rolling at 7 am.
Santosh Parab of Goa, who lives in Diva, went to Panvel at 4 pm on Thursday to board the train, as it was on its way from Madgaon to Diva. It arrived at 8.30 pm, and he managed to get seats for his family. Said Parab, “A 13-hour journey was extended to a 30-hour adventure, but at least we got seats!” He was relieved when the train finally touched Madgaon at 8.30 pm on Friday, and he was home for Chovoth.
