Central Railway block on day dedicated to punctuality

In a major faux pas, the Central Railway (CR) will operate a six-hour block that will lead to the cancellation of 40 suburban trains and regulation of 20 long-distance trains on Sunday, which was dubbed Satarkata Diwas and, ironically, dedicated to punctuality.

Each zonal railway was expected to show 100 per cent punctuality on the occasion, which was created to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two years in power.

The initiative comes under the Hamsafar Saptah, which began on May 26 and will go on until June 1.

Mr Modi had issued a diktat across 17 zonal railways, in which instructions have been given that they should observe Sewa Divas on May 28 (Saturday) and Satarkata Diwas on May 29. The Prime Minister has asked railway officers to get down to the grass-roots level on Sewa Divas and travel in trains that they run for the common man.

The senior officers were also instructed to talk to passengers themselves and understand their grouses. On the following day — Satarkata Diwas — railway officials were supposed to maintain the best punctuality that is humanly possible by showing a scoreboard of 100 per cent.

However, the CR has decided to operate a six-hour block from 12 am on Sunday for laying down girders for the Kasaiwada bridge at Kurla.

The CR had demolished the bridge back in December last year, fearing a repeat of the Hancock bridge incident.

The Railways could not bring in new rolling stock of a much greater height than old trains, as officials were afraid that the overhead equipment would crash into the bridge, which was located between the Suburban railway stations of Sandhurst Road and Byculla.

A railway official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, admitted that the block should have been operated a long time ago.

“The fact of the matter is the CR should have operated this block way back. It unnecessarily wasted time on other things and no one gave any thought to the Prime Minister’s anniversary and that he might declare some railway initiative,” said the official.

Some officials feel that the block should have been cancelled after the railway week was declared by the railway ministry on May 25, but said that they couldn’t deny that if the block of the bridge was not carried out this weekend, they would have had to wait until the post-monsoon period.

“Kurla residents are angry as it is because Ramzan is round the corner and the bridge, which is the only connect the east and west, is nowhere near completion. At the same time, it looks like we are going against the instructions from Delhi and saying we have too much work. But we could afford to not operate the block this weekend had the senior officials done the Kurla work on time,” the official said.