Western Railway local trains in Mumbai hit due to technical issues; Metro runs extra services

Mumbai, Jun 3

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Local train services on the Western Railway network were disrupted on Monday due to technical issues after a cable was cut at the Borivali station in Mumbai, officials said.

Extra Metro services were operated to handle the rush of passengers due to delayed local train services, they said.

Borivali is one of the busiest railway stations in North Mumbai, with a large number of commuters and office-goers using the local train services from there everyday.

The technical issues occurred at around 2 am. Suburban trains were not operated from platform numbers one and two of the Borivali station due to the cable being cut that rendered some track changing points non-operational, the Western Railway officials said in the morning.

Trains were being operated from the remaining platforms – three to eight – at the station, according to an official.

Western Railway officials later said the technical issues were partially resolved.

Four track changing points which were affected due to the cable cut were restored, but the restoration work was still on, they said.

The Western Railway daily operates more than 1,300 suburban services and around 30 lakh commuters travel on its network, spread between Churchgate in South Mumbai and Dahanu in the neighbouring Palghar district.

A spokesperson of the Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited said they operated extra services on Monday morning to cater to the rush of passengers due to the delayed local trains services on the Western Railway route.

Normally, 21 train sets are operated during peak hours, but on Monday, 24 were in service, the official said, adding that Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s Metropolitan Commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee has instructed them to run extra services to alleviate the rush.

Metro Line 2A (between Dahisar and Andheri West) and Line 7 (between Dahisar and Andheri East) witnessed significant increase in overcrowding at Borivali, Kurar and Rashtriya Udyan stations, the official said.

“Currently, four extra train sets have been added on Metro lines 2A and 7,” said the spokesperson, adding the additional services will continue until the situation normalises.