India News | Mumbai: CR Holds Two-hour Block on Harbour Line to Demolish Dilapidated Wall Along Track; Commuters Hit

Mumbai, Jul 7 (PTI) The Central Railway (CR) conducted a two-hour-long "emergency block" on the Harbour line in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon so that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) could remove a dilapidated wall near Masjid station, a portion of which fell near the tracks in the morning, an official said.

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During the block that was held between 2 pm and 4.10 pm, suburban trains did not operate between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Vadala Road stations, CR's chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said.

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"But the passengers were permitted to travel on the main railway line via Dadar and Kurla stations during this period," he said.

The emegerncy block was necessitated after some portion of the wall fell near the track between Masjid and Sandhurst Road stations on the Down track of the Harbour line around 7.15 am on Thursday, which affected the local traffic on the corridor for about 15 minutes, he said.

According to the CR officials, a suburban local was supposed to pass from the track within a few moments.

But the motorman of a Panvel-bound local train from CSMT observed that some portion of the wall fell near the track, making it unsafe for the train to pass. Therefore, he did not start the train from the Masjid station, they said.

"Motorman S N Kamble did a good job by timely stopping the local train before the spot this morning," Sutar said, adding that the motorman informed about the wall collapse to the train guard, who immediately conveyed it to the control room.

The CR said that it then informed the BMC about the incident and the civic body advised that the remaining portion of the structure be pulled down to avoid traffic disruption.

Railway officials said that they learnt from the civic officials that the dilapidated wall was part of the structure of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

A BEST spokesperson said that the affected structure was a protection wall around its power substation.

The civic body razed the remaining part of the wall during the emergency block, officials said.

"Necessary precaution was taken during the (wall removal) work and there was no impact on the electricity supply," the BEST official, adding that the public transport body operated nine additional buses during the block period.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)