5-hour Central Railway megablock to hit commuters today

Brace for crowded trains running behind schedule and more than 42 services getting canceled on the Central Railway on January 18. This is all due to a 5-hour railway megablock being undertaken to carry out work on a foot over bridge (FOB) at Ambivli. 

Escalators to climb and get down are also provided on these newly constructed FOBs.

Officials from CR said they will operate this block from 10am to 3pm on both Up and Down lines between Ambivli and Asangaon stations. “We are running 30 special services as well. During the block, we will be launching two steel girders for construction of 3.7m-wide FOB at Ambivali,” said SK Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.

According to CR authorities, all local trains towards Titwala, Asangaon and Kasara leaving Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) from 9.12am to 1.30pm and those towards CSMT leaving Kasara, Asangaon and Titwala from 9.54am to 3.02pm will remain cancelled. The total number of cancelled local trains would be more than 42 services putting schedules of lakhs of commuters in disarray.

Apart from this, four long-distance trains will be cancelled and a few of them will be diverted and short terminated. During the block, the authorities will complete major work on the FOB at Ambivli, which is on the Kalyan-Kasara route. 

The Ambivli FOB is being built at a cost of Rs 4 crore which will be nearly 250 meters long.

The CR officials added that they want to see the probable repercussions that it could face if taken during peak hours as similar mega blocks will be carried out at Currey Road and Elphinstone Road-Parel where FOBs are being built by the Army. The CR authorities will first have a major block at Currey Road on January 28-29.