Now, Over Head Equipment wire snap disrupts Central Railway’s main line

MUMBAI: More than 70 Central Railway services were cancelled as the slow line corridor was shut for traffic for over four hours, as an Over Head Equipment (OHE) wire snapped between Ghatkopar and Vikhroli on Tuesday morning.
While the slow line corridor was shut for traffic between 7.15am and 11am, Up and Down slow services were operated on the fast corridor between Matunga and Mulund. A senior official said, “The failure may have occurred due to a problem in a pantograph of a CST-bound train from Kalyan.We suspect the pantograph may have hit the steady arm of an OHE pole at Mulund. It damaged the pantograph, which then got entangled in the OHE between Vikhroli and Ghatkopar.”
Another official said, “Material failure is also suspected as the bracket which holds the OHE wire could have broken, leading to entanglement of the pantograph.” Central Railway’s chief public relations officer Narendra Patil said, “The cause of the failure is still under investigation.”
Rajan Vichare, a Mulund commuter said, “I boarded the slow train at Mulund at 8.15am, but I was able to reach Dadar only at 9.45am.” Thane resident Pratik Nerurkar said the delays forced him to take a cab from Ghatkopar to CST via the Eastern Freeway, to reach office in time. Kalyan resident Yamini N said it took her two-and-a-half hours to reach her workplace in Kurla after services on the slow track were hit. She had boarded a train at 7.40am from Kalyan but it took an hour to cross Thane, normally a 30-minute journey.
Even after services were restored, trains continued to run 20 to 25 minutes late till the start of evening peak hour.