Eastern Express Highway choked till past midnight, Thane’s water supply hit.
The most congested train services of the Central Railway remained off track for almost 18 hours beginning at 11am on Friday till Saturday early morning following the falling of a portion of the under-construction road over-bridge (ROB) at Kopri near Thane railway station.
Unfortunately, a new Siemens-make EMU rake got damaged. At 10.55am, a 40-m pre-stressed concrete girder of the under-construction ROB of the Thane Municipal
Corporation collapsed along with the adjacent water pipeline and fell down on a Kalyanbound slow local which was passing under it. This killed two persons including motorman R Ramchandran and Subhash Nikam, 35, a resident of Bhandup.
Not only did the overhead equipment (OHE) wires break but even the OHE portal broke and fell on the tracks. The tracks have been damaged and needs immediate replacement.
The train services on all the 4 lines between Ghatkopar and Thane were suspended.
Several mail and express trains were rescheduled and cancelled. “After removing the trainfrom the tracks, we will need to clear the debris of the ROB. The entire track portion will have to be removed and replaced by a newer one. This will have to be done in sync with the rest of the tracks. Also the OHE wire and the portal will have to be restored. This is one of the major activities and will at least takeover 18 hours to restore the work,” said SC Mudgerikar, chief PRO of CR.
During this period, CR operated trains to destinations like Karjat and Kasara via the harbour route. “Trains started from CST reached Kurla changed the tracks and reached Vashi from there to Thane and then ahead to stations like Karjat and Kasara from Thane,” he said.
As there was a block, no train services could be operated between Ghatkopar and Thane. “We will expedite the work and ensure that the train services resume normally by Saturday morning,” a senior railway official said.
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