Cancellations, delays to continue on Western Line till October 4

MUMBAI: The Western Railway (WR) officials on Monday said that they will take around 43 hours to finish the work of laying the fifth and sixth railway lines between Goregaon and Kandivali stations. The project, which will continue till October 4, is crucial for segregating suburban and long-distance trains and to improve punctuality and increase the number of services in future.
On Monday, the WR cancelled 170 train services after imposing speed restrictions between Ram Mandir, Goregaon and Malad stations. Chaos ensued as stations across the Western Line saw overcrowding due to trains being delayed 15 to 30 minutes throughout the day.
“There was a crazy rush at the stations. I had to skip two to three trains in the peak hours, plus the trains were passing very slowly between Kandivali and Ram Mandir stations and there were delays,” said R Kamat, a resident of Vasai who takes the local train every day for work.
Sources in WR said that in connection with the ongoing work of the 6th line between Goregaon and Kandivali stations, a speed restriction of 30 kmph has been imposed on all four lines UP and DOWN Slow and Fast lines between Ram Mandir – Malad stations that have been effective from September 30. Until October 4, the WR authorities will cut and connect the 5th and 6th lines to the Goregaon yard, Malad and Kandivali stations which would require 43.30 hours.
In the last month, they have already undertaken 128.38 hours for this massive mega block wherein they have changed the platforms at Malad, created new rail tracks and introduced new Points for the trains to switch rail lines. Vineet Abhishek, Chief PRO, Western Railway said that speed restrictions have been imposed to conduct the testing of the new signalling system which is the most critical aspect.
“The speed restriction on UP and DOWN Fast lines will be removed by Wednesday morning, i.e. October 2 and the number of cancellations of suburban train services on Fast lines will come down from approx. 150 services to around 67 services. Similarly, the speed restriction on UP & DOWN Slow lines will be removed by Friday morning, i.e. October 4. The suburban services will be normalised from Friday with no cancellations during the daytime, except during block periods,” said Abhishek.
The WR officials said that the work of the 6th line between Goregaon and Kandivali will be completed by this weekend when the last & final major block for this work will be undertaken. The engineers working said that once this 42-day block is complete, the sixth rail line will be extended up to Kandivali. A similar major block is expected by this year-end between the Kandivali-Borivali section.