Over 300 activists of Nagrik Ekta Manch on Wednesday staged a Rail Roko agitation at the Goelkera Railway Station of the Howrah-Mumbai main line, demanding the stoppage of mail and express trains there.

Men and women sat on the railway tracks and started their agitation from 8:45 am, disrupting train movement along the route.

Several senior railway officials of South Eastern Railway's Chakradharpur division including the senior divisional commercial manager Manish Pathak rushed to the spot.

Deployment of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) was also made in adequate numbers to prevent any untoward incident.

Leading the agitation, the president of the outfit, Laxman Malgandi said that Goelkera Railway Station assumes importance as several mail and express trains running in Howrah- Mumbai main trunk route passes through it.

"We want stoppages of all mail and express trains at Goelkera. We have been fighting for this demand for quite some time but to no avail," said Malgandi.

The agitators were refusing to speak to the railway officials who were present at the spot. They were demanding the divisional railway manager of Chakradharpur division V K Sahu to come to the spot.

The local administration had sent Block Development Officer of Goelkera, Sudhir Prakash for tackling the situation.

The six-hour-long agitation was called off at around 3 pm.

"The agitation was peaceful. No damages were caused to railway property," said Sanjay Ghosh, chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway.

The agitation affected movement of several trains, including South Bihar Express and Howrah- Mumbai Mail.

Several trains had to be halted at the Rourkela Railway Station. They resumed journey after the agitation was called off at 3.10 pm.