Harbour line commuters brace self for 4 rocky days

Mumbai: The Harbour line will see one of the biggest blocks beginning Friday, which will conclude on December 25 with a 13-hour long block. Around 210 services will be cancelled in these four days, while 100 special trains will be run. The block is being undertaken for works related to construction of the Seawood-Uran line.

Initially the Central Railway (CR) had planned to cancel most of the Belapur-originating trains but the plan had to be shelved after the repercussions were ascertained to be too severe. An official said, “It was found that cancelling the Belapur-originating trains would have disturbed the time table and increased the waiting time for commuters, in between two consecutive trains. So, the plan was revisited and it was decided that only 20 per cent of these trains would be cancelled.”

Normally, there are about 81 trains that start from Belapur, but for these four days, only 67 will be run. The effect of the cancelled trains will be normalised by running extra 100 services from Vashi, Panvel and Mankhurd, the official added.

Unlike the Sunday mega blocks that are limited from 10 am to roughly 4 pm on the Harbour line, the four-day block will see partial or limited services for the first three days, with the 13-hour long blanket block reserved for the fourth day. The line is expected to remain shut from the morning to about 4:30 pm on the fourth day.

An official said, “The trains are planned to be shut for 13 hours on Christmas Day as it is a public holiday and most corporate and government offices are expected to remain shut that day. We are hoping that people won’t be affected very severely by it.” The CR plans to start the first half of the line by March 2018.

Things to keep in mind

• Trains are likely to be delayed by at least 20 minutes, as the normal timetable for the line will be suspended.
• Belapur-originating trains will be limited to morning and evening hours.
• Extra trains from Panvel are likely to be making 60 per cent of the special trains being run.
• On Christmas Day even the Trans-Harbour will be shut.
• On Sunday, the usual mega-block will not enforced.