Mumbai:
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.
The Central Railway’s (CR) suburban services resumed later in the evening on its main line, but not those on the harbour line, officials 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 5pm.
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 had remained suspended due to inundated tracks.
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.
After more than 12 hours, traffic on the Central Railway’s main line resumed fully, but Harbour line services were still suspended, he said.
The services between CSMT-Dadar stations fully resumed around 7.45 pm.
“Trains have started running from CSMT to Kalyan and beyond,” Sutar said.
“Shuttle services are running between Vashi and Panvel on Harbour line,” he added.
Suburban tracks of the main line and harbour were submerged above the danger level at certain locations and some locations, there was about 11 to 29 inches of water above the track level, the CR spokesperson had said earlier in the day.
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 on 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.
