Trains running late in Mumbai? Blame banana peels and biscuit packets

The city’s lifeline that caters to nearly 40 lakh commuters a day is often disrupted by the commuters themselves

Banana peels, clothes and plastic packets are among the factors that disrupt local train services — and the railways can’t be blamed for these delays.

The city’s lifeline that caters to nearly 40 lakh commuters a day is often disrupted by the commuters themselves.

For instance, commuters often throw banana peels from the footover bridge. These fall on the overhead equipment (OHE), causes sparks and gets stuck between the OHE and the train.

Authorities need to switch off the OHE and have often spent more than 30 minutes to get the trains running again, officials said. Plastic packets, chips and biscuit wrappers have the same effect.

READ: Mumbai’s railway network will take 4 yrs to get better, but project cost has already touched ₹8K-cr

In another case, in June, a commuter was carrying a wooden door at the Ghatkopar station. He was on the footover bridge but dropped the door which fell on the OHE, breaking the wire. It took more than an hour to fix the OHE.

The railway authorities said they cannot be squarely blamed for such lapses.

“I appeal to people not to throw clothes, plastic or fruit peels on the OHE wire. It disrupts movement of trains and leads to delays. These incidents are happening quite often,” said Ravinder Goyal, divisional railway manager, CR