Coil of rope holds up harbour line services

In yet another incident of things falling on overhead equipment, trains had to stop for 10 minutes, leading to delay in the services

Services on the harbour line were disrupted on Wednesday morning, thanks to a coil of rope hanging from the overhead wires. The issue was fixed in 10 minutes, but it led to a delay in train services on the line for quite some time. 

“On Wednesday morning, there was a coil of rope hanging on the overhead wires between Masjid Bunder and CSMT at around 7.11 am, as reported by the motorman of the train. It had come from outside the railway area. Power had to be shut off, then the coil of rope was removed manually by railway staff and services resumed at 7.25 am,” a Central Railway official said.

This is not the first time that the local services in the city came to halt due to such issues, which can be accidental as well as an act of mischief. Since June this year, 10 such incidents were reported on the CR wherein cloth banners, TV cables, gunny bags, street light cable and other such off things were found on the overhead equipment (OHE) of the railway network.

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Last week, there was a huge cloth of a banner that flew down over rail tracks near Byculla. Last month a street light cable was found on the tracks near Mumbra.

The OHE network is charged with 25,000-volt power supply, when such foreign objects fall on the wires or any overhead equipment, it leads to sparks, short circuits or even breakage of the equipment, leading to major disruptions. 

“If there is any damage caused to the contact surface, trains would not be able to operate. It would have taken a whole day to set it right and impact train operations along the route. Hence, it is important to safeguard the system, and during monsoon when winds are strong, there is an increase in such instances,” an official added.

What all caused disruption since June

• Hoardings
• Cloth banners
• Gunny bag
• TV cables
• Street light wires
• Coil of rope

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