CR services come to a halt as part of rly track collapses

Already running late due to the heavy rain, suburban services on the Central Railway (CR) were disrupted for several hours on Wednesday.

Already running late due to the heavy rain, suburban services on the Central Railway (CR) were disrupted for several hours on Wednesday after a portion of a track sank near Thane station due to micro-tunnelling work being carried out by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC).

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Before things could come back on track, soil erosion between Badlapur and Vangani once again brought services to a halt during evening peak hours.

More than 50 suburban services were cancelled and movements of several long-distance trains were affected.

According to railways officials, a small portion of down slow track between Mulund and Thane station collapsed near Kapari bridge around 11.17am.

The MRVC contractor was digging a micro-tunnel 3ft below the tracks for laying 110kv cable. However, on realising that a portion of the track had collapsed, workers immediately stopped a Kalyan-bound local, said Ravi Agrawal, project manager of MRVC.

This resulted in disruption of suburban services on the main line, which were already running late by 10-15 minute due to heavy rain. “A train was stuck between Mulund and Thane for nearly an hour,” said a CR spokesperson.

During the evening peak hours, a soil slippage was reported at a minor bridge between Badlapur and Vangani station. CR spokesperson said a few passengers alerted the Vangani stationmaster about it. “Though it was not serious, for safety reasons trains services were stopped for an hour from 6pm to 7pm,” the spokesperson said.

Claiming there was no negligence in maintenance of tracks, Vidhyadhar Malegaokar, chief PRO, CR, said, “The work of pipe pushing under railway track was being carried out, which resulted in soil erosion.”