Monday storm plays havoc with Mumbai's public transport

The dust storm and rain played a big role in the disruption of local trains during evening peak hours

MUMBAI: It was a manic Monday for lakhs of rail commuters in the city. From suburban trains to the metro rail to BEST buses, all the different modes of public transport went for a toss. While the dust storm and rain played a big role in the disruption of local trains during evening peak hours, technical failures led to a collapse in train services on the Central line in the morning peak hours.

Suburban train services on Central Railway (CR) were affected after an overhead equipment (OHE) mast supplying power to the trains collapsed between Thane and Mulund stations at around 4 pm. Around the same time, a banner too fell on the OHE cables between these two stations. (Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

Windy Monday

The sudden gust of winds accompanied by dust caused not just technical failures but also impacted the visibility for train, bus, auto and taxi drivers. Suburban train services on Central Railway (CR) were affected after an overhead equipment (OHE) mast supplying power to the trains collapsed between Thane and Mulund stations at around 4 pm. Around the same time, a banner too fell on the OHE cables between these two stations. “Due to this, train services were stalled on the Slow line. The heavy winds also slowed down train movement on other parts of the Main and Harbour lines,” said a CR official.

Earlier in the day, there was already a major technical failure at Thane station, which decommissioned all the rail signals around the railway station for an hour. This led to major disruption in services on the Kalyan-Kurla route in the morning hours.

This was the second major failure in a matter of hours to have occurred close to Thane station. As the evening peak hours approached, the CR authorities hurried to rectify the lines as soon as possible and cleared the Up Slow line as well as the fallen banner. However, trains were delayed by at least 15-20 minutes in the evening and almost 100 services were cancelled during the day.

Western Railway too had an issue with the signalling system at Charni Road. This was soon rectified but resulted in the cancellation of around 25 train services. The Metro rail on Line 1 between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar was also impacted by the winds. According to officials from Mumbai Metro One Private Limited, “Due to heavy winds, a cloth got entangled on the OHE near Airport Road Metro station, resulting in disruption of the metro service.” This was, however, rectified within eight minutes.

People complained that the availability of auto rickshaws and taxis remained a problem due to the sudden increase in demand. “Auto rickshaw drivers parked their vehicles and did not ply due to visibility issues as well as fear,” said an auto rickshaw union leader.

BEST officials said that owing to a tree getting uprooted in Ghatkopar, bus routes 481, 381, 430 were diverted. A few routes were operated via the Eastern Express Highway. This was the case in Bhandup as well, which led to bus diversions in the evening hours.

Airport

Poor visibility due to the dust storm led to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) shutting down operations for 66 minutes. It led to 15 diversions of incoming flights as well as delays in departures. A few incoming flights were diverted to Ahmedabad and Surat.