As rains continued to lash the city for a second day running, public services disintegrate into chaos with technical failures, derailments and potholes wreaking havoc
Even as the city is used to the usual breakdown of services during exceptionally heavy downpour, yesterday, Murphy’s Law appeared to be playing out real time. The first sign of trouble presented itself in the suburb of Khardi, between Kalyan and Kasara stations, at around 6:10 am. As the morning peak hour was about to start, there was a technical failure, followed by a potential derailment on the Central Railway. Then, trouble brewed at the sparsely used Monorail, and the evening was capped off with traffic at Western Express Highway stalled for hours.
ADVERTISEMENT
Also Read: Mumbai Monorail services hit due to technical glitch
Two monorails were stranded near Bhakti Park station in Wadala. Pic/Shadab Khan
Derailment: Wheel comes off
At 9:52 am, barely 300 meters away from platform 1A, a trolley from a Kalyan-CST local derailed. The wheel of the coach came off, but sources said that it was a close call.
“Thankfully, it did not derail any further, else we would have struggled in operating other trains leaving to and from CST,” said a CR official. The Accident Relief Train (ART) reached the site immediately, but the authorities diverted the Up and Down slow line services before Thakurli. “Due to the two incidents, we cancelled 60 train services,” said chief PRO, Narendra Patil, Central Railway. The derailed coach at Kalyan was rerailed at 12.20 pm after which the Up track was given the safe nod at 1:05 PM and Down track at 2:12 pm.
Monorail: Tyre burst stalls services
Though the authorities are claiming that the monorail breakdown incident on Monday morning near the Bhakti Park station was a technical snag, sources from MMRDA have told mid-day that one of the reasons for the breakdown was the tyre burst of a non-operational monorail, being towed back with the aid of another monorail. It should be noted that there was a similar tyre burst incident earlier as well, raising concern over the quality of monorail tyres. A source from MMRDA said, “The non-functional train that we were towing and bringing back to our car depot at Wadala developed a technical snag due to a tyre burst near the Bharat Petroleum, following which the serviced were affected.” However, additional metropolitan commissioner Sanjay Khandare refuted the claim and said, “There was no tyre burst incident. A technical snag developed in the train while it was being towed because of which the services were affected.” Furthermore, on Monday afternoon, MMRDA sent a press statement reiterating its earlier position on the reason for the breakdown.
Read Story: Thane: Two coaches of Kalyan-CST local derail near Kalyan
WEH: Potholes unsettle peak hour traffic
Within two days of heavy rainfall, the potholes arterial Western Express Highway are back, causing immense inconvenience to motorists and leading to heavy traffic jam during morning and evening peak hours. On Monday, the first working day of the week, the commuters and motorists traveling via WEH were stuck in traffic between Kandivali and Malad due to the slow moving traffic.
Graphic: Ravi Jadhav
Technical failure: All signals red
Near Khardi station, which is a good 90 km away from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), all signals turned red.
Officials from CR said that the signal panel went awry and this resulted in there being no trains between Kasara and Asangaon stations for over an hour. “The problem was rectified by 7:20 am, after which train services resumed,” said the CR official. However, the train services continued to run late by at least 20 minutes for the rest of the day.
20 mins
Train services continued to run late all day
60: Number of trains that were cancelled
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
