The Central Railway (CR) will cancel five intercity trains and terminate an equal number of long-distance passenger trains before their destinations from July 26 to August 9 to undertake a series of infrastructure works on the ghat section between Karjat and Lonavala in order to prevent boulders from falling on the tracks.
The section has seen multiple instances of boulders falling since the onset of the monsoon, disrupting several long-distance passenger services to and from the city.
“Train services have been affected due to cases of boulders falling in the southeast ghat from mid-June, affecting the mobility of our mail express trains. We have planned major infrastructure upgrade during this period to ensure that smooth services are maintained in the coming times,” said chief public relations officer, CR, Sunil Udasi.
CR will cancel the Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express, Mumbai-Pune Pragati Express, CSMT Mumbai-Gadag Express and the Pune-Panvel Passenger. For 15 days, CR will also be short-terminating five trains at Pune: the Mumbai-Kolhapur Koyna Express, Mumbai-Kolhapur Sahyadri Express, Hubballi-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express, Hazur Sahib Nanded-Panvel Express and the Hazur Sahib Nanded-Panvel Holiday Special. These trains will depart from Pune on their return journey.
Senior railway officials said that during the work, one line will be shut, leaving two lines operational. In the ghat section, there are three lines: Up (towards Mumbai), Down (towards Pune) and a middle line. “The middle line is generally used to move bankers between Karjat and Lonavala or used as an additional line when there are cases of landslides of boulders falling on either the Up or Down lines,” a senior CR official said. Bankers are a set of additional engines attached to passenger trains at Karjat, decoupled at Lonavala and sent back to Karjat through the middle line.
Senior officials said the cancellations were necessary as with a full schedule running on two lines, the bankers have little or no path to make the return journey.
Long-distance passenger trains are permitted to run on the middle line only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., severely restricting trains, they said.