Mumbai's lifeline shuts down as locals remain off the tracks

Mumbai: Heavy rains in Mumbai and adjoining areas crippled normal life for the second consecutive day on Sunday, throwing train services off the tracks. Owing to water accumulation on the railway tracks, suburban services of the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) were adversely hit. More than two dozen express trains were cancelled while many were short terminated.

A major train accident involving Rajdhani Express was averted on Sunday evening between Panvel and Roha on Konkan Railways track in Maharashtra. Loco Pilot A.V. Rahore and Asst Loco Pilot Pawan Kumar Patel applied brakes in time after spotting boulders on the railway track. Meanwhile, commuters were stranded across railway stations due to suspension of the services.

A scribe, Steffy Thevar, who was on her way to Pune, said, “I boarded the Chennai Express from Dadar on Saturday night at 8:30 pm and the train stopped after reaching Karjat. The train didn’t move forward till 2:30 am and the route of the said train was also diverted to Panvel (not via Pune). The train finally reached Panvel at around 2:10 am forcing me to drop my plan. I later decided to return to my place in Goregoan. I finally managed to reach home at 6.30 am on Sunday.”

Informing about the situation, CR’s senior public relation officer, Anil Jain, said, “The CR services on the Main Line and Harbour Line between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Karjat, Kasara and Khopoli were suspended since 8 am. While the suburban services between Thane and Kalyan were resumed at 11.15 am, first  service between CSMT to Kalyan was began at 7.45 pm.”

Owing to waterlogging and falling of boulders between Karjat and Lonavala station in the Western Ghats section, several Mumbai-bound trains were terminated, diverted or cancelled. All the express trains via Mumbai-Pune were cancelled.