HL: 'We experienced earthquake like tremors'
Strap: Claim residents of Savarkar Nagar and Ramchandra Nagar in Thane who also heard the sound of a passing train
Devendra T Goregaonkar

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, close to 10,000 residents of Savarkar Nagar and Ramchandra Nagar in Thane felt tremors, what they claim, resembled an earthquake. However, no government authority has confirmed or denied the fact.
Rahul Waghmare, a resident of Savarkar Nagar, said, "In the wee hours of the night while watching TV, I felt sudden vibrations from the earth. We thought it was an earthquake. The sound was almost like a passing train." As Waghmare stepped out of his ground floor house, to his surprise, he found that all the residents had come out of their houses, dreading an earthquake. In some time, everybody again felt the tremors.
Namdev Pashankar, a resident of Ramchandra Nagar, said, "I thought it was an earthquake. As I went out of my house, I found many people saying the same thing."
Pashankar alleged that the incident occurred twice in the night. With the fear, the residents almost had a sleepless night. In the morning, they claim, they witnessed a similar happening at 6.55 am. "We experienced the same again at 6.55 am and 7.10 am," Pashankar said.
According to him, the last month too they experienced the tremors twice.
Surprisingly, the neighbouring areas such as Shastri Nagar and Shivai Nagar too did not experience this. "My friends living in other areas of the city did not feel it," Waghmare said.
Meanwhile, though the residents kept calling the disaster management cell of the collector office to seek a confirmation about the occurrence, no one answered their calls. District collector AL Jarhad said, "We have not received any information about any such incident in the city. As the said areas come are under the TMC's jurisdiction, their disaster cell may be aware of the incident."
However, the TMC's Disaster management cell too remained unreachable, leaving the mystery unsolved.
g_devendra@dnaindia.net

BOX:
A management disaster
The disaster management cell is expected to operate round the clock but on Monday night, despite trying repeatedly couldn't get through the number. No one answered their calls. Even on Tuesday, the disaster management cell of the collector's office had no information about the incident. On the other hand, the telephone operator from TMC said that the disaster management cell of TMC did not have any direct number