Limited services due to the ongoing 72-hour mega block on the Harbour Line hit commuters hard on Saturday as Central Railway worked for the second day running to resize platforms at CST to accommodate 12-car trains.
Officials said that as trains were running only between Panvel and Wadala stations, services had to be decreased so that the stations could handle the traffic.
A CR official said the original plan was to run 15 trains between Panvel and Wadala every hour. However, this was causing delays and backlogs in services as the stations are not equipped to handle so many services terminating at Wadala instead of proceeding to CST as usual, inconveniencing commuters. “After several delays, we decreased the services to ten trains per hour,” he added.
On Saturday, CR had almost completed extension work on platform no 2 of CST station. It is expected to be completed early on Sunday.
“Several other maintenance and repair jobs were also carried out on the Harbour Line. Crossovers between Wadala and GTB Nagar were extended and signalling equipment on the tracks was repaired. There have not been any major delays,” an officer said.
The 72-hour megablock will be in effect till 1.30 am on Monday, and trains will only run between Panvel and Wadala during this time. Commuters are likely to face further inconvenience due to this. Services will resume as usual from 4 am on Monday.
