WR trains stopped due to fake alert

MUMBAI: An alert by a citizen led to hardship for commuters of Western Railways (WR) on Sunday evening after he called up the fire brigade authorities and told them about having purportedly spotted soil erosion from the ceiling of Khar subway. The fire brigade informed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), who in turn informed railway authorities, which halted the WR trains operation for over 45 minutes. A spot inspection by a team of WR officials, found the subway to be safe after which services resumed.     

Commuter Vikas Pandey, who boarded a Borivali-bound local at 4.45 pm from Churchgate, said, “The train stopped near Mahim station for more than 25 minutes and later an announcement was made that due to technical reasons, the train had halted and the train began to move past 40 minutes.” Another commuter, Pinky Vardhan, said, “I was stuck at Santacruz station at around 5 pm. The fast and slow trains were stranded. Three announcements were made after 20 minutes, regarding technical problems. There was no train on harbour line and a heavy crowd was seen on the platforms and the skywalk.”  

In a tweet, the WR said, “On the concern received about the condition of subway between Khar and Santacruz, the rail traffic was stopped for some time and subway was checked by railway engineers and found ok. Traffic has resumed on all lines at about 17.45 hrs onwards.”  

A senior official of WR, “The suburban services were held up which was later resumed after inspection. However, the services were running from Bandra to Churchgate in reverse direction.”