After technical snag halted Central, Harbour line trains, railways mulls new CST-Diva local

After the Central railway line in Mumbai was hit due to a technical snag that  prompted widespread protests by passengers and locals on 2 December, the government is now planning to start a CST-Diva local.

According to this report in The Times of India, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and other senior railway officials are planning to visit the Thane-Diva stretch this week and come up with a plan. If everything goes as planned, a train might soon chug from CST to Diva.

Last week’s breakdown of the Central and harbour line trains was a wake-up call as irate passengers took to streets and pelted stones at policemen. A Firstpost report quoted media reports and said that police were rushed in to control the situation and they resorted to baton charges to evict the agitating commuters from the railway tracks.

Prabhu’s visit has been slated for 9 January and discussions about funds, maintenance of tracks, overhead wires and other equipment will be discussed at the meeting, the report further added.

The Union minister is also planning to meet to discuss problems faced by the commuters on Thane-Karjat and Thane-Kasara sections of the Central Railway, according to the report in Mumbai Mirror.

Prabhu, speaking to Mumbai Mirror, said, “For the last many years, the suburban rail services are facing an overload of passengers. The number of people taking trains is only increasing with time, but services have not increased correspondingly, which causes problems. There needs to be a long term solution to this problem, for which I will speak to the chief minister and come out with a plan that will ease commuter tensions.”

According to the TOI report, the Union Railway Minister also added, “We will study the feasibility of launching such a service in the near future,” he said, adding that Mumbai’s suburban rail network has been long neglected. “We are drawing a plan to revamp things on priority. Demands being raised by local commuters will be looked into.”

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after the Friday protests had promised a review of the situation and appealed the people to maintain peace. The chief minister had also tweeted saying:

“Discussed the matter with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. We will look into the reasons of disruption and work on corrective course for future.”