Mumbai: Battery box theft hits Western Railway commuters

By Shashank Rao |

Thousands of peak hour commuters were stranded as a major power failure hit the Western Railway's suburban services following a theft of a battery box here on Monday morning, an official said.

Representational pic

The railways announced at various stations that all train services on the fast and slow corridors in both directions had been stopped due to a technical snag at Dadar.

"It is found that the problem has occurred due to theft of battery box at Mahim electric sub station. Efforts on for early restoration," the Western Railway tweeted.

UPDATE- It is found that problem hs occurred due to theft of batter Box at Mahin Elec Sub St Efforts on in full swing for early restoration.— Western Railway (@WesternRly) June 20, 2016

The theft resulted in the snapping of power supply between Andheri and Churchgate, affecting the entire Western Railway lifeline which is used by over four million commuters daily.

The problem began at Dadar at around 11.20 am, when power supply failed on all rail lines, both towards Churchgate and Virar. As a result, trains stopped on both sides at Dadar. “Power is not holding in the overhead wires at Dadar and so trains aren't running. We are working on rectifying the issue," said Gajanan Mahatpurkar, spokesperson, WR.

However, services delayed by over 30 minutes were operated on the Andheri-Virar section. BEST deployed extra buses to clear commuters rush in different directions.

Even the main line on CST-Kalyan and CST-Panvel Harbour line on CR were also running late by 10-15 mins.