Doors of Virar-bound AC local train fail to open at 8 stations

Railway authorities had to manually open the doors for passengers to board and deboard from the AC local train compartment.

MUMBAI: In a major technical failure, the doors of the air-conditioned local train of three coaches did not open at eight local train stations on Thursday afternoon. The automatic doors of AC local trains operating between Churchgate and Virar railway stations did not open at Andheri, Borivali, Dahisar, Mira Road, Bhayandar, Naigaon, Nalasopara and Virar railway stations.

The local train was delayed by a total of 10 minutes till it reached the Virar railway station. (Bhushan Koyande)

Railway authorities had to manually open the doors for passengers to board and deboard from the AC local train compartment. The train halted at Borivali railway station at 3.39 pm and was held up till 3.47 pm to inspect why the doors did not open. At other stations, the doors of the three compartments were opened manually by railway personnel.

The local train was delayed by a total of 10 minutes till it reached the Virar railway station.

“The doors were manually opened and closed for passengers from Borivali to Virar railway stations. System override was given at Borivali but was not successful and then the batteries of the electronic systems were reset at Virar, following which the train started functioning normally,” said a senior Western Railway official, who did not want to be named.

Prima facie, the Western Railway has stated that there were issues with the sensors of the AC train. The train was then moved to Mumbai Central car shed.

The zonal railway has launched an enquiry into the incident and will be taking steps to prevent such incidents in future. “It looks like a problem in the sensors and control card of the local train. We are investigating the issue and a detailed analysis is being done,” added the railway official.

Passengers took to Twitter to recall earlier incidents of AC local doors not opening.

A similar incident occurred on July 12 on the Central Railway door of the compartment of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) bound Kalyan AC local and did not open at Dadar railway station and passengers had to de-board at Byculla railway station. Central Railway has initiated a probe into the incident.