The milling crowd that was stranded at Dadar station after CR stopped operations Wednesday night. (Photo: Shripad Naik)
The milling crowd that was stranded at Dadar station after CR stopped operations Wednesday night. (Photo: Shripad Naik)
All local trains on the Central Railway came at a standstill after the city witnessed a drizzle on Wednesday evening.
Following the pattern of other peninsular states, Mumbai too witnessed light showers Wednesday evening. As the Southwest Monsoon is slated to arrive in Maharashtra around the second week of June, with a possible delay of four to five days, the Indian Meteorological Department confirmed the rainfall as pre-monsoon showers. “The light showers are a part of pre-monsoon rains. Similar showers will continue in the city for a day or two,” said Rajib Nair, director, IMD.
The problem with the trains, however, began 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.
After the problem was rectified the train headed towards Dadar but the wire gave out sparks again and the motorman finally brought the train to a complete halt.
Just when the problem on the slow track was just taken care of, a vital signal cabin at Vikhroli could not relay any of the signals anymore. The cabin relays all the signals on the fast and slow line on the fast and slow tracks towards CST as well as Kalyan and the disruption lasted from 8. 15 pm to 9.30 pm, completely paralysing the CR.
CR public relations officer A.K. Singh said that the rain seemed to have played the spoilsport. “We think that the drizzle has caused the problem and the wire could not hold the electricity as well,” he said.
Trains were delayed by at least 40 minutes even after the services were resumed.
