With the number of commuters increasing steadily between Virar and Dahanu, passenger associations have now started making petitions to railways and ministries pleading for more local trains in the sector. Given the limitation of two lines beyond Virar, railway officials say the situation is very delicate and may not be able to help much till the quadrupling is complete. Work on quadrupling is on at a rapid pace and is expected to be completed by 2025.

Pathamesh Prabhutendolkar, joint secretary of the Dahanu Vaitarna Pravasi Sevabhavi Sanstha, said, “There is extremely limited local train connectivity with regard to Dahanu Road and the situation is exacerbated during peak hours. Recently, Western Railway (WR) introduced additional new services of 15-coach locals on the Virar-Churchgate route but no such trains were introduced on the Virar-Dahanu Road stretch. Currently, when 20-coach MEMU trains, which are similar to that of locals, are running on the Virar-Dahanu Road section, then why not 15-coach local trains? The other demand has been additional local services at regular intervals as there are huge gaps between two trains and also local trains are kept waiting in the loop for outstation trains.”