Relay-room fire and a dangling wire hit Mumbai locals in Monday rush; commuters walk on tracks

Suburban train services on Central Railway’s main line in Mumbai were disrupted during Monday’s morning peak after a wire was found hanging from the overhead equipment (OHE) near Thane and a fire in a relay room at Kanjurmarg station knocked out signals.

A foreign wire was detected hanging from the OHE at 9.23 am on the down slow line between Mulund and Thane, Central Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer Swapnil Nila said, according to news agency PTI. An OHE block was granted at 10 am so the wire could be removed.

“An OHE block was granted at 10 am to allow the technical team to carry out the necessary work. The incident affected the Down Slow line on the Kurla-Kalyan section,” a Central Railway official told the Hindustan Times. The block ended at 10.48 am.

Around 9.30 am, all signals at Kanjurmarg went blank, affecting train movement at the station and on the section between Vikhroli and Bhandup. Nila said a fire in the relay room led to the signalling failure, and that the cause would be investigated further once services were restored.

With the regular signalling down, trains on the stretch were run under special authority, and “absolute block working” was introduced between Vikhroli and Bhandup on both the up and down lines, so that only authorised trains entered the affected section.

“Due to an OHE block for removal of a wire and a smoke incident in the Relay Room at Kanjurmarg, train services have experienced bunching and are running behind schedule,” the office of the Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai, posted on X.

Crowds built up at stations and inside trains on the first working day of the week. Commuters said trains stood still for more than an hour at some locations, and several passengers got off and walked along the tracks between Mulund and Nahur.

“An Ambernath to CSMT local train which arrived in Thane at 10.50 am was halted between Mulund and Nahur for one and a half hours. It departed Thane at 11.05 am and was later stuck between the stations,” a college student travelling to Churchgate told PTI. The student said there were no announcements inside the train about the situation ahead.

Commuters on the main line have been dealing with persistent delays for about the past two weeks, including during peak hours, the Free Press Journal reported.