Due to the heavy rains in Mumbai on Friday, the city experienced obstruction in running the trains as the tracks and stations are watery.

Generally, the local train services get back to normal by the evening, how great the rainfall is, in the day time. But it seems the rain has exceeded the limit and so the train services had to be stopped on the CST-Thane and CST-Vashi stretches till late in the evening. 
 
On the other hand, though the Western Railway (WR) services are suspended between Churchgate and Andheri on all the four lines from 10.30am to 4.20pm. But after 7.55 pm, when the officials observed that the situations are favorable to resume the services, did it. The Western Railway managed to resume the services all the four lines till Church gate, but with a restricted speed due to the presence of water on tracks at certain spots.

WR first failure

However heavy the rains are, WR has a record of running the trains within a short time of rain stoppage. But due to heavy water-logging at Matunga Road, it failed to do it this time.

Referring to the situation, one of the senior official said, "The extent of disruption today was by far the worst since the 26/7 cloud burst, though today's case cannot be compared with the tragedy of 2005."
 
WR's divisional railway manager Shailendra Kumar said, "There was 200-250mm of water on tracks because it was unable to recede via the Dharavi nullah, which is handled by the BMC administration."

A WR spokesperson said, "A similar problem and water levels were reported at Elphinstone Road station due to which services remained suspended on all the four tracks between Churchgate and Andheri till 4.20pm."

Due to the water on the tracks, the regular public life was disturbed by the non availability of train services. However, the public are updated about the services via social and electronic media regularly.

By Phani