Rail fracture disrupts Harbour services

The poor maintenance practices followed by the Central Railway (CR) yet again came to the fore with a rail fracture on the very day when Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu landed in Mumbai. This disrupted the morning peak hours on the CSMT – Panvel Harbour line.

The incident of rail fracture occurred at 7.20 am between Chembur and Tilak Nagar stations on the Down line. Consequently, train services towards Panvel were disrupted, resulting in delay of trains coming in to CSMT. Sources said that the rail fracture was a tricky one as there is garbage dumped close to the tracks. The CR cancelled around 40 services through the day while trains ran more than 10 minutes late. It took more than an hour for the authorities to rectify the rail fracture as they had to replace the track portion with a new one.

"The tracks were given safe by 8.23 am," said AK Singh, spokesperson, Central Railway. The authorities agreed that poormaintenance of rail tracks have been an issue. On August 13, the CR will carry out mega block on their Harbour line between CSMT and Chunabhatti/Bandra stations.

Mega Block announcement

On August 13, the CR will carry out mega block on their Harbour line between CSMT and Chunabhatti/Bandra stations. During this period all Harbour line services will remain affected from 9.50 am to 3.50 pm. There will be a mega block between Matunga and Mulund stations from 10.15 am to 3.15 pm. During this period there will be a check of rail lines, OHE cables and signals.