72-hour shutdown by Central Railway; 350 local trains to remain cancelled

The mega block has been announced to complete the final work and commissioning of the new fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Diva stations. File pic

The Central Railway on Wednesday announced a 72-hour major shut down to complete the final work and commissioning of the new fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Diva stations. More than 350 suburban and 117 mail express trains will remain cancelled. Central Railway officials said that trains will continue to run on the slow lines, but the frequency will be reduced. The shutdown will begin on the existing fifth and sixth line between Thane and Diva from midnight of February 5 till midnight of February 7. This means, even on Monday, the first working day of the week, there will be curtailments.

Due to the work, over a period of three days around 350 suburban trains and around 117 mails and express trains will remain cancelled. Several other trains will be short-terminated or short-originated. A few Mainline electric multiple unit or mainline electric multiple unit services between Diva-Dombivli-Vasai will also remain cancelled. However, a few specials will run. To avoid congestion in the section, Diva-Vasai-Panvel CR MEMU train timings have been changed. Few have been cancelled, while few special MEMU services will run.

This, however, has not gone down well with the daily commuters, who said the railways should have announced such a major shut down in advance for citizens to plan. The block was in the knowledge for quite some time, but there was a delay in planning and announcement of the specific details. "The Central Railway has already informed all municipal corporations to run additional buses for commuters' convenience," Central Railway chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said.

Once the blockwork is over, the new lines will be commissioned immediately with speed restrictions. As the work involves major infrastructural changes it may involve train delays till the line finally gets commissioned. The train speed will gradually be increased after ensuring the consolidation of a new track/new formation. The completion of this corridor between Diva and Thane will see a sea of change in the rail traffic of Central Railway Mumbai. It will not only lead to an increase in suburban trains but also completely segregate the outstation mail/express trains between Kalyan and Kurla. The fast local trains will then get a dedicated path and new platforms have also been built at Kalwa and Mumbra stations.