Firecrackers damage WR signals, delay Virar-Churchgate locals

Firecrackers bursting caused a fire along railway tracks between Nallasopara and Virar late Sunday night, damaging signalling equipment and disrupting train operations on the Virar-Churchgate rail corridor.

Mumbai: Diwali firecrackers also disrupted suburban train operations, delaying trains by 20-30 minutes on Western Railway on Monday morning. Firecrackers bursting caused a fire along railway tracks between Nallasopara and Virar late Sunday night, damaging signalling equipment and disrupting train operations on the Virar-Churchgate rail corridor.

Firecrackers damage WR signals, delay Virar-Churchgate locals

The fire was reported at 11:20 pm after unidentified people allegedly burst crackers along the rail lines. “We found burnt firecrackers at the site. The dry grass burst into flames; the fire was extinguished by 11:50 pm,” said a WR official.

Railway staff rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire in 30 minutes, but signalling cables close to the tracks were already damaged by then.

On Monday evening, the WR authorities said the fire incident between Virar and Nallasopara damaged 20 signalling cables. This affected seven signals in the section on both Up and Down lines.

The damage disrupted train operations, delaying 14 suburban services on Sunday night. The impact was greater on Monday, with 35 services cancelled and 150 trains delayed.

The fire affected signalling equipment in the section, which resulted in the failure of multiple track circuits and forced WR to operate trains under restricted conditions.

The disruption continued into Monday morning, with local trains running 20-30 minutes behind schedule between Virar and Churchgate.

Commuters travelling towards Mumbai faced delays as railway staff worked to restore the signalling system and normalise train operations.

The Up trains — those travelling towards south Mumbai — were required to pass signals with an A-marker as per prescribed railway rules. This precautionary operating arrangement slowed train movement and affected the overall schedule.

Because trains followed the restricted signalling procedure, services could not operate at their usual speed and intervals, causing delays along the entire corridor. The impact affected both suburban and long-distance services.

Railway authorities attributed the delay in restoring normal operations to the ongoing work on the damaged signalling equipment and track-circuit failures. “Our technical teams were attending to the problems to restore the affected signalling equipment at the earliest,” the official said.