10-12 WR services cancelled because of film shoot

It was not heavy rainfall or technical failure that led to the cancellation of at least 10 to 12 services on the Western Railway (WR) on Tuesday.

It was not heavy rainfall or technical failure that led to the cancellation of at least 10 to 12 services on the Western Railway (WR) on Tuesday.

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Railway sources alleged that of around 20 services that were cancelled on Tuesday, more than half had to be cancelled because of the shortage of one train, which the WR had rented out for a film shoot.

The WR has 76 trains, which make 1,250 trips between various stations in a day, ferrying 36 lakh Mumbaiites across the city. On an average, one train does 10 to 12 trips in a day.

The shoot was held on platform number five at Goregaon railway station from morning to afternoon, sources said.

Between 8.22am and 4.30pm, 10 trains to Churchgate and 10 trains from Churchgate were cancelled, sources said.

Sources said the WR had rented out a train for the shooting of Marathi film, Rajjo, the debut film of director Vishwas Patil, who is an Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) and a well-known Marathi writer. The rake that was rented out was a nine-car Siemens-manufactured train numbered 2121 /2122.

Vishwas Patil confirmed that he had a shoot scheduled from 11am to 4pm for which he had got official permission from the WR. “The unit hired a local train for which the required fees were paid to WR,” he said.

Initially, Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, WR, denied that any local train services were cancelled on the western line.

However, when Hindustan Times provided him with a list of cancelled trains with their time and the train numbers, he admitted that three trains from Churchgate to the suburbs had to be cancelled between 8.22am and 8.56am. “It was because of the derailment of a goods train near Baroda, and it happened before the time allotted for the film shoot.”

He had no answer to why the remaining services were cancelled.