The Central Railway on Thursday said that it would penalise the company that was responsible for the technical failure that occurred on Wednesday during peak hours.
The Central Railway on Thursday said that it would penalise the company that was responsible for the technical failure that occurred on Wednesday during peak hours. The CR has claimed that unlike what was assumed earlier, the breakdown did not happen because of the evening drizzle. It happened due to a technical electrical failure in the auxiliary transformer.
The CR had problems in fixing the signalling system but the problem was resolved at 5am on Thursday morning. This also resulted in CR trains running late by 20 minutes during peak hours on Thursday morning.
“We have decided to penalise the company which provides the CR with material related to auxiliary transformer. The actual life of the material is around 25 years, but it is found that the transformer was just two years old,” CR’s general manager S.K. Sood said.
Auxiliary transformer is an automatic signalling system, which transforms electrical supply and which failed on Wednesday evening. The disruption of services also affected the passenger trains coming and going out of Mumbai that were running late by three to four hours.
“The trains were running late on Thursday morning too as the rakes were not parked at their stipulated car sheds, forcing the motorman to travel extra distance which consumed more time as the trains were running late,” said a CR official on condition of anonymity.
The problem began on Wednesday with the trains around 8.15 pm when the overhead wire on the section between Sion and Matunga could not hold the power due to which the wire saw sparks and trains had to be shut down on the slow line. Right after that, a vital signal cabin at Vikhroli could not relay any of the signals anymore.
Commuter Activists voice their concern to CR general manager S.K. Sood In the wake of frequent disruptions on the CR activists of railways-appointed committees on Thursday conveyed their concerns to senior CR officials.
The activists, belonging to Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), Suburban Rail Passengers Federation among others, apprised CR general manager S.K. Sood with the hardship faced by commuters during disruption of train services on the Central line.
A technical glitch on Wednesday evening on the Central line, brought the suburban and mail trains operation to a grinding halt, inconveniencing lakhs of passengers.
The representatives also conveyed the grievances of passengers who were stranded in the stuck trains, besides those who had to walk on the tracks to Mr Sood.
President of Yatri Sangh Mumbai and member of railways-appointed Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee Subhash Gupta said, “We informed the authorities about the various problems ailing the CR. We strongly condemn CR’s ill- preparedness to deal with incidents similar to what happened on Wednesday.” Mr Gupta also commented on the “lack of disaster management” by the CR officials and the fact that no information was shared by the senior officials with the public, when they needed it.
