Travellers hit hard due to CR block

Mumbai: Central Railway (CR) passengers were forced to face hardships on Sunday, courtesy “block-delay”. The CR had taken a mega block of four hours but it was extended by over 20 minutes which is why crowds gathered on the platforms of several stations, leading to chaos and cancellation of trains at Kalyan station, said a passenger.

Amidst all this, a point failure occurred at Kurla, bringing even more troubles for commuters. CR officials said that the point failure was restored by 3.30 pm. Meanwhile, Subhash Gupta, president of the Rail Yatri Parishad, said that despite the Ganesh festival, the CR took a mega block on Sunday, which should have been taken on Ganesh Chaturthi day on September 13 instead, when the CR ran services as per the “Sunday Schedule”

Mr Gupta said, “There was lack of coordination between the Mumbai division and CR headquarters. Once an advertisement of a five hour mega block was given in the newspapers, why did they reduce the timing of the block period? And after reducing, why didn’t they wrap up the work before 3.10 pm?”

Sunil Udasi, CR chief public relations officer said, “Only a single train starting from Kurla was delayed. Rest all were as per schedule.”