MUMBAI: Thousands of pass-engers on Harbour line were inconvenienced on Monday as the 38-hour rail block for the Panvel suburban yard remodelling work got extended by more than four hours.
With services resuming at 5.40pm instead of 1.37pm, the situation on stations between Belapur and Panvel was chaotic as platforms got crowded with no trains plying in either directions. Upset, several passengers were forced to travel by packed buses or overcharging autorickshaws to reach their destination, resulting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Sion-Panvel highway and other arterial stretches.
Kharghar resident Sneha Patil said, “People had planned their journey after 1pm, but since there were no trains, the bus stops were overcrowded. Taking advantage of the situation, autorickshaw drivers charged double the fare.”
Central Railway had announced the 38-hour block between Belapur and Panvel stations for construction of two new lines in connection with the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, which will connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with JNPT in Navi Mumbai. The block started from 11pm on September 30 and was to end at 1pm on October 2. A CR spokesperson said, “The work was eventually completed at 5.25pm. The work got delayed due to rain and also because some of the labourers had to be shifted to help restore services after the derailment of a goods train between Panvel and Kalamboli on Saturday.”
V P Ram (50), a chartered accountant from New Panvel, said, “As CR had announced a 38-hour block, I travelled by NMMT bus to Belapur in the morning to meet a client, as the civic transport undertaking had provided additional bus services. After the meeti-ng, around 1pm, I reached Belapur station, but the platfo-rms were crowded as the blo-ck was extended. I took a packed NMMT bus to reach home.”
Many passengers also co-mplained that no announcement was made about the “extended block”. Commuter Mayuresh Apte posted on X: “Train services from Panvel not started yet. Why false information? Must give clear information and make it public by all means…” Another commuter, Venkatesh Nadar, posted: “Panvel to Belapur and Belapur to Panvel are shut down. But no one is doing proper announcement. Lots of people are facing issues…”
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