In a likely first, Commissioner of Railway Safety orders suspension of services between King’s Circle and Mahim to address breach of safety norms
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Observing a major safety lapse in the way suburban trains were being run on the harbour section of Western Railway, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), probably for the first time on Friday, ordered the suspension of services for a little over an hour on the CSMT-Andheri section. Services were resumed only after the railways had checked the track parameters between King’s Circle and Mahim stations, and matched them with the standard schedule of dimensions.
To keep out bias from railway safety, the CRS falls under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
In December 2015, the CRS had allowed the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) to begin work on extending platforms and remodelling track layouts.
This was completed in October 2016, but WR never submitted safety certificates. It was on one of these crossovers that a suburban train had derailed last month.
Services were suspended in a block from 1:10 pm to 2:20 pm, when approval was received to run the services. About 18 services were cancelled and many others delayed inconveniencing passengers.