KOLKATA: Sodepur railway station in northern suburbs of Kolkata turned into a battleground on Saturday morning with thousands of commuters blocking suburban train routes, vandalising the railway office, attacking the station master and four policemen.
The agitation began at around 10 am on Saturday after several trains were cancelled and delayed due to upgradation works in signalling system between Icchapore and Barrackpore railway stations.
The irate passengers complained that Sealdah-bound Ranaghat local train, that is supposed to stop at Sodepur railway station skipped the station on Saturday.
The passengers also said wrong announcements had compounded their hardship.
In the last two days, about 130 EMU locals had been cancelled mostly running on the shorter routes, they said.
The Eastern Railway argue that earlier they had announced the cancellation of a total of 158 local trains in the northern Sealdah lines for four days beginning Friday due to the upgradation of the signalling system.
"There might have been some problems in the announcement made earlier, which has led to the misunderstanding. I request passengers to cooperate with us for the modernisation works," said Eastern Railway PRO Rabi Mahapatra.
The blockade of the local trains affected train services in the northern Sealdah lines to Bongaon and Barasat in North 24 Parganas and Krishnanagar and Gede in Nadia district.
The agitation continued till 12.45 pm until another group of local train passengers, aided by a contingent of Rapid Action Force and West Bengal Police, forcibly removed the agitators from the railway tracks and commenced the railway services.