Central Railway operated a special midnight traffic block this weekend on parts of the Harbour and Trans-Harbour suburban lines to enable key upgrade and repair works.
The closure was planned for the night between Saturday and Sunday, to support the commissioning of a modern Electronic Interlocking system at Vashi station and the casting of a road overbridge slab on the Trans-Harbour route, officials told The Indian Express.
There will be no daytime block on Western Railway’s suburban network on Sunday.
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A Central Railway spokesperson said, “These maintenance mega blocks are essential to ensure network safety, efficiency, and long-term reliability of our infrastructure. We request passengers to bear with us for the temporary inconvenience.”
Passengers have been advised to check revised schedules before travelling on the affected routes over the weekend.
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Details of the block
- According to The Times of India, the Harbour line at Vashi station was blocked from 12:45 am to 10:45 am on Sunday. On the Trans-Harbour line, services between Thane and Turbhe were suspended from 12:30 am to 5:30 am on Sunday.
- The first Down local train after the block was from CSMT to Panvel, departing CSMT at 10:10 am. The first Up locals after the block was from Vashi to CSMT at 10:55 am and Panvel to CSMT at 10:33 am.
- Special trains were run between CSMT and Mankhurd during the block period to assist commuters.
- Overnight, a special traffic and power block was carried out between Kalyan, Ambarnath, and Badlapur until 6:55 am.
- This was to launch steel girders for the Lokgram foot overbridge at Kalyan and to remove girders of the proposed road overbridge between Ambarnath and Badlapur.
- Apart from these, there are no blocks on the Main and Harbour lines of Central Railway today.
- Due to the blocks, several suburban trains were either short-terminated or started from alternate stations.
- On Saturday night, the Belapur to CSMT local at 11:16 pm terminated at Vadala Road.
- Panvel to CSMT services at 10:35 pm, 10:58 pm, and 11:13 pm also ended at Vadala Road, while some others terminated at Belapur.
- On Sunday morning, certain services originated from Nerul, Vashi, or Belapur instead of their usual stations.
- These included the CSMT to Panvel local at 10:52 am from Nerul, Belapur to CSMT at 10:40 am and Panvel to Vadala Road at 11:28 am from Vashi, as well as Panvel to CSMT locals at 10:49 am and 11:16 am and Panvel to Vadala Road at 12:49 pm from Belapur.
- Down Harbour services from CSMT between 11:52 pm (Saturday) and 10:03 am (Sunday) were cancelled.
- Up Harbour services from Panvel between 4:03 am and 10:17 am on Sunday were also cancelled.