Title - 50 services cancelled after faulty CR work

MUMBAI: Faulty work on overhead equipment (OHE) led to a disruption in Central Railway's services on Friday. Commuters between Kalyan and Kasara were affected the most as more than 50 services were cancelled.

A block was taken from 2-4 am to raise the level of OHE inside Parsik tunnel after section switch to alternating current. "The maximum moving dimension of a train was not taken into account when the height of the OHE was raised. As a result, 25 pantographs of eight trains operating on the north-bound fast track were damaged. Because of the incorrectly raised OHE, the pantographs grazed against the tunnel's inner surface," said a senior CR officer. "At least four trains had to be cleared with the help of diesel engines."

That there was a fault in OHE alignment was discovered when pantographs of a CST-Ambarnath local and a CST-Kasara local got entangled with OHE near Kalyan. But it took almost four hours for CR officials to identify Parsik tunnel as the primary cause. "In such cases, the spot that causes failure is usually close to the place where the actual failure takes place," said a CR officer. "But in the present instance, the fault was inside the Parsik tunnel, where it is pitch dark. Also, it is almost 12 km away from the place where pantograph-OHE entanglement occurred."

It also baffling that no failure was in train that passed on this stretch between 8 am and4 am, when the block was lifted."

A senior official from electrical department said blamed the lack of coordination between the electrical department and open line for the incident. He said, "We had raised the height of the OHE from 4.69 to 4.77 m from rail level. It appears that the open line department too had raised the level of track by 0.22 meter. We are not kept in loop about this development, thus leading to failure"

The incident led to chaos at railway stations like, Kalyan-Karjat and Kalyan-Kasara.

Badlapur resident Chandrakant Joshi "I am usually y board the train at around 12, 15 pm fromBadlapur railway station but on Friday it took around one and half hours as first local train came at around 1.30 pm at Badlapur railway station and I reached Kalyan railway station at 2.20 pm and that too after many struggle as it was very difficult to get inside the train,"

V Darshana who works in Fort area said, "I reached Ambernath railway station at around 11 am. But there were no trains for CST till 1.35 pm

Rakesh Mutha, another residents of Badlapur who was waiting for local train at Kalyan railway station with his wife and two kids said, "Two days before we had come to meet our relatives due to vacation period and today was going back to home but due to late train now we have decided to stay one more days at relative house and going there".