The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is unlikely to keep its deadline for carrying out the most vital part of conversion of harbour from 9-coach to 12-coach.
The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is unlikely to keep its deadline for carrying out the most vital part of conversion of harbour from 9-coach to 12-coach.
The work, which requires at least a 72-hour block between Vadala and CST, was scheduled to start on Christmas day which falls on Friday and go on over the weekend, just in time to wrap up before the office rush on Monday morning. A senior official said, “Ideally, MRVC could have done the work over the Christmas weekend because, no such time frame is available for months after that. It is during this time that many people go out of the city for short trips and there is less rush in local trains.”
The delay comes after MRVC botched up the harbour block on October 26. The block that was taken between Kurla and CST was already declared for six hours, which is more than the usual four hours.
Due to some technical problems, that Sunday, the block was not opened for a good eight-and-a-half hours, resulting in cancellation of more than 30 trains and delay in 150 services.
MRVC officials said that after this block-burst, CR was not open to giving any more blocks but divisional railway manager Amitabh Ojha said that they would consider the request once it was sent. “Right now, no request has come from MRVC but we are open to giving a block,” he said.
Harbour line is long overdue for conversion to 12-coach because of overcrowding and commuter footfall growing by almost 70 per cent in the last five years, according to CR statistics.
