Suburban services on Central Railways back on track after 19 hours

Suburban services on the Central Railway (CR) resumed on Thursday morning, after being shut for more than 19 hours since Wednesday amid heavy showers. While trains between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Thane station started plying at 4am, services on Harbour line, between CSMT and Vashi, resumed at 6am.

The CR now plans to approach the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to propose the widening of Mithi river, which swelled to dangerous levels on Wednesday, flooding tracks between Kurla-Sion and Chunabhatti stations and crippling services for hours. CR had in a statement on Wednesday said the tracks were flooded owing to Mithi overflowing. CR officials said the proposal is aimed at preventing water from entering tracks. “The water level on the tracks between Kurla and Sion was 20 inches. Despite constantly pumping out water, the rate at which water was receding was very slow. It took an hour for the water level to go down just an inch,” said a senior CR official.

In August too, when the Mithi had overflowed, the tracks between Sion and Kurla station had been waterlogged, leading to suspension of services on CR mainline. The CR had then claimed water on the tracks did not recede owing to the overflowing river.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, passengers of Dadar-Sawantwadi Tutari Express blocked the railway tracks at platform number six of Dadar station to protest against the delay in operation of outstation trains. The express train was rescheduled by CR. As a result of the protest, local train services on the fast line corridor of CR were operating with a delay of twenty minutes on Thursday afternoon.

Train services across the city’s suburban network were thrown out of gear on Wednesday amid heavy rain. While services on CR’s mainline were suspended at 11.30am, trains on the Harbour line were suspended at 1pm. Two local trains on Harbour line, at Chunabhatti station, were marooned as floodwater damaged the electrics. Local train services were also suspended for some time on the Churchgate and Andheri railway section and between Vasai and Virar stations. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) rescued 5,600 stranded passengers from local and outstation trains.