Mumbai: suburban train services resume partially

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Suburban services of the Western Railway (WR) in Mumbai resumed fully as water on the tracks receded, it said on Wednesday evening as the city grappled with heavy overnight rains. However, the Central Railway's (CR) suburban services had not resumed till late in the evening, railway authorities said.

With waterlogged tracks, suburban services of both Central Railway and Western Railway were suspended early Wednesday morning.

Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, WR, said its suburban special services were fully restored between Churchgate and Bandra around 5 pm.

The first slow corridor train from Churchgate to Virar departed at 4 pm, while the first slow train from Bandra to Churchgate started at 4.55 pm, he said.

"Now WR's special suburban services are running on all four lines," Thakur said.

Earlier in the day, the WR had resumed suburban services on the fast corridor, but slow corridor services between Churchgate-Bandra remained suspended due to inundated tracks.

Central Railway's suburban services were still suspended between CSMT-Dadar and CSMT-Vashi due to waterlogging between Curry Road and Parel stations on main line and Wadala and Chunabhatti stations on the Harbour line, respectively, it said.

Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer of CR, said suburban services between Dadar-Thane were resumed after water on the tracks in Dadar-Kurla section receded around 6 pm.

"Suburban tracks of the main line and harbour are still submerged above the danger level at certain locations and due to continued rain coupled with high tide in the evening, the water from the tracks hasn't receded to safe levels," he said.

At some locations, there was about 11 to 29 inches of water above the track level, the CR spokesperson said.

Presently CR and WR are operating over 850 special suburban services only for essential services employees in view of the coronavirus threat.

Common people are dependent on the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses, but the rains crippled the civic bus service too on Wednesday.

The BEST spokesperson said the buses on 100 routes were diverted via alternative routes at 32 locations.

Thirty buses were stuck in waterlogged streets and 23 of them were attended by its mechanics by 3 pm. Mechanics could not reach the other seven buses, he said.

In all, BEST operated 2,375 buses on Wednesday, he said.