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CR services disrupted for 8 hours
A speeding suburban train dragged down about a kilometre-long length of overhead wire around 4.48 am between Mulund and Thane stations.
Thursday morning peak hour was chaotic on the Central Railway.
A speeding suburban train dragged down about a kilometre-long length of overhead wire around 4.48 am between Mulund and Thane stations.
Local train traffic was thrown into a tizzy. The chaos and confusion reigned for about eight hours before normal services resumed.
The train involved in the incident was a new-age Siemens rake.
In a freak mishap on Monday, a 24-year-old commuter died when an overhead wire snapped and fell on the train near Santacruz station, killing him instantly.
Western Railway officials had confirmed that overhead wires had snapped but refused to say what had caused the mishap.
On Thursday, Railway officials found that a device holding the wires from above had broken, leading to the incident.
“The wire got dragged down till the train halted. A kilometre of overhead fitments were damaged and had to be replaced,” said Central Railways chief spokesperson S.C. Mudgerikar. “The damage was so extensive that the exercise was like laying new wires.”
Restoration work was delayed as the stranded local had to be moved using a diesel engine as electric supply had been switched off so that a repair work train could be brought to the spot. Over 100 electrical engineering staff and senior railway officials were engaged in the restoration work.
“Restoration was completed by 1:28 pm,” said Ashok Kumar Singh, public relations officer.
Singh said restoration work was delayed due to the rains.
“The wire snapped after it got stuck in the pantograph at 4.48 am,” said S.S. Bagul Police Sub-Inspector, GRP (Mulund). A pantograph is the equipment on the train that draws power.
Twenty trains were cancelled during morning peak hours, inconveniencing commuters for over an hour.
Prerna Jadhav (23), an HR executive, who usually takes the 9:30 am CST fast from Thane was among those who reached office late. “When I reached the station around 9.20 am, the indicator displayed a 7.55 fast train on platform 6. Trains were overcrowded and I had to board a bus,” she said.
