MUMBAI, Aug. 31 -- For the second day in a row, Mumbai ground to a halt as over 25,000 Maratha protesters surged into the city on Friday, answering the call of activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who began an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan. The scale of the mobilisation-allowed under extended police permission-paralysed arterial roads, swamped railway stations, and left commuters trapped in hours-long traffic snarls across South and Central Mumbai. Offices in Fort, Nariman Point and Lower Parel wore a deserted look as workers from the suburbs either logged in from home or abandoned the commute altogether. By noon, the city's lifelines had collapsed. The Eastern Freeway-normally a swift gateway into South Mumbai-was reduced to a parking lot, with cars and buses stranded in gridlock for hours. The ripple effect stretched far beyond: the Sion-Panvel highway near Vashi bridge was throttled, the Atal Setu bridge crawled, and the Eastern Express Highway moved at a snail's pace. "It was unbearable," said Nitin Sherkhane, a 34-year-old contractor. "A one-hour ride from Koparkhairane to Dadar took me four hours." The traffic police, in desperate advisories on X, urged motorists to stay away from routes leading to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Azad Maidan. But the warnings did little to help those already trapped. Near CSMT, a handful of BEST buses and hundreds of cars were left stranded for two hours as protesters blocked the road, moving only to allow an ambulance through. Many protesters had arrived in vehicles of their own, which they parked haphazardly along roadsides. Some even set up makeshift kitchens, cooking meals on the pavement. The police have extended the permission for quota protests for Sunday as well after an application was received by them from Manoj Jarange Patil. "We have extended the permission for Sunday," said a police officer. If the roads were overwhelmed, the city's biggest railway hub turned into the movement's nerve centre. From Friday night, thousands of Jarange-Patil's supporters poured into CSMT after long journeys. Several senior officers tried to convince the protestors to unblock the road however they were in no mood to listen the police even showed them the audio and video clips of their leader Manoj Jarange Patil who asked them to co-operate with police and not trouble Mumbaikars. Finally the traffic police asked the vehicle owner to reverse vehicles and later around 11 am the traffic blockage was removed....