Mumbai: The weekend train commute to Pune will be hit with commuters facing cancellations and delays following Central Railway’s (CR) decision to take a seven-hour block on Sunday to carry out maintenance work near Monkey hill in Lonavala ghat.

The CR will be cancelling five Pune-bound trains on Friday, including the popular Deccan Queen which sees maximum train travel on the Mumbai-Pune route. The other trains to be cancelled include the Mumbai-Pune Sinhagad Express, Pune-Mumbai Sinhagad Express, Mumbai-Pune Deccan Queen, Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen, Karjat- Pune shuttle service and Pune-Karjat shuttle service. The Pune-Bhusaval Express will be diverted via Manmad and Daund.

The CR public relations office issued a statement that read, “Trains will be cancelled due to ongoing work near Monkey Hill station.”

This section of the ghats is important as there have been a lot of accidents lately i.e. boulders falling on the Hubli-LTT Express etc. Particularly the asection between Palasdari and Khopoli will be shut down between 9.40 am and 4.40 pm.