Commuters struggle through waterlogged roads at Hindmata after heavy showers, on Saturday . (Photo:Shripad Naik)
Commuters struggle through waterlogged roads at Hindmata after heavy showers, on Saturday . (Photo:Shripad Naik)
Due to heavy rains, the Railways saw delays on almost all its lines on Saturday, as the engine of a rake and signals failed on both the Central and Western Railways. Also. traffic was affected at flood-prone areas like Rajat Junction at Kurla, Centaur Bridge as well as new areas like Sainath Subway at Malad.
The Central Railway (CR) saw over 100 trains delayed and almost 50 trains cancelled when an engine failure paralysed the Harbour and mainline. The engine of an old retro-fitted rake failed at the Harbour line’s CST platform no. 2 between 2 pm and 3 pm, resulting in the complete suspension of trains to and from CST.
The engine of a Siemens rake failed, and it was stuck at Dadar’s platform no. 6 from 4 pm to 5.20 pm, which again created chaos on the line. To make matters worse, a few areas like Masjid, Matunga and Mahim were waterlogged. The water logging caused signal failure at Bandra from 3:15 pm to 3.45 pm, causing a serious backlog of trains heading from Andheri to CST and vice-a-versa.
“On the Central line we did not have as many issues as we usually do from waterlogging, but our biggest issue was the failure of these two rakes on two of our most heaviest lines and junction railway stations for Mumbai, Dadar and CST. Unlike the mainline, on Harbour we do not have a fast corridor so not only was the train stuck but also almost the entire line,” said a railway official on the condition of anonymity.
The Western Railway (WR), on the other hand, had only five cancellations but it saw delay of 15 minutes. “The only problem we saw was when the signal failed at Bandra and we had to divert our trains from Mahim as a result,” said another official.
Road traffic was also hit after severe waterlogging in the city, flood-prone areas like Hindmata, King Circle, Trombay, Rajat hotel at Kurla and the Centaur Bridge near the airport were a mess from morning to afternoon. “These areas were a major issue from morning till evening. The water did recede after a while and we saw traffic normalise to a great deal as a result. These areas are jammed mostly due to potholes,” said a traffic official.
But new areas that did see waterlogging in the city were reported on the North and South of the Sainath Subway located right outside Malad station. “Sainath Subway as well as the Mukhya Adhyapak Bhavan outside Sion Hospital are new areas that were waterlogged. Until now these areas had not been a problem,” said the officer.
There will be a mega-block on the CR on Sunday on both the mainline and the Harbour line.
