Train derails near Belapur, services hit

Services on the harbour line of the Central Railway were affected for six hours on Wednesday as a train derailed between Seawoods Darave and Belapur stations at 10.40am.

According to the Central Railway, a rake of the 9.30am Panvel-bound train, which originated from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), derailed between the two stations.

The derailed train was restored to service around 12.45pm.

The first train to leave for Belapur after the restoration work was at 1.15pm and regular services on the Belapur-Panvel section began at 4.10 pm.

Although no injuries were reported, the derailment resulted in chaos among commuters as 25 services on the Nerul-Panvel stretch were cancelled.

AK Singh, public relations officer of the Central Railway said, “Although the exact cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained, prima facie it seems the compartment wheels had some problems.”

While the train was being restored, the CR ran 40 shuttle services between CST and Nerul and two rakes between CST and Panvel for the benefit of commuters stranded on stations for long hours.

Hemani Patel, a Mansarovar resident, commutes daily by train to Vashi. She said, “The trains had been halted at the Belapur station for more than hour without making any public announcements. It caused a lot of inconvenience as many of us were late to office.”

Poornima Singh was visiting the Mahalaxmi temple with her family. She waited at the Panvel station for more than two hours before taking a bus.

“We wanted to visit the Mahalaxmi temple on the auspicious occasion of Mahashivratri but we had to travel by a bus instead of a train. We had no idea why train services had been disrupted,” said Singh.

General manager of Central Railway (CR), Kul Bhushan has appointed a high-level committee of three members including the chief safety officer and the chief track engineer to investigate into the incident.

They will submit their report in the next three days.