Train services remained suspended for over 3 hours during morning peak hours on Thursday, after a rail track cracked and a Track Relaying Train (TRT), that was laying sleepers near Airoli at around 6.30 am, got stuck
Commuters on the Trans-Harbour line - Thane to Vashi and Panvel - had a harrowing experience during morning peak hours on Thursday , as services remained suspended for nearly three and a half hours after a rail track cracked while a Track Relaying Train (TRT) was installing new sleepers (concrete strips on which tracks are placed) near Airoli at around 6.30 am.
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Employees working hard to fix the track (inset), so that services could be resumed at the earliest. Pics/Shrikant Khuperkar
However, sources claimed that the incident took place around 4.50 am.
Commenting on the incident, Narendra Patil, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, said, “The incident occurred around 6.30 am, after the TRT got entangled in the track. This resulted in cancellation of services, so that it could be removed. Services resumed by 10 am.”
With train services coming to a standstill, office-goers had to rely on road transport, which resulted in over-crowding of state and city buses. As commuters thronged the road, ugly traffic jams were reported at important roads and junctions.
Motorists experienced bumper-to-bumper traffic at Kalwa junction and on Thane-Belapur Road. Those caught in between Kalwa Creek bridge and Thane Civil hospital, remained stuck for at least an hour. “I take an ST bus from Thane station to travel to my office in Digha, which is usually a 15-minute drive. But today (Thursday) it took me 50 minutes, as the bus was stuck in traffic,” said a commuter.