For at least 15 days, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) bound trains starting from Goregaon/Andheri/Bandra on Western Railway (WR) might not halt at Mahim Station on the Harbour line.
The decision on the same will be taken in a day or two as the WR engineers are trying to work out alternatives, hoping to avoid this step which could cause inconvenience to commuters.
Currently, there are around 65 train services that ply on the Bandra/Goregaon-CSMT Up line every day. And the same number of services also ply on the Down line (towards Bandra). If this decision is taken then people will have to alight at Bandra or King Circle station and either go by road or come in the train coming on the Down direction.
For the last three days now, work is underway at Mahim wherein they are easing the degree of curve of the track from 4° to 7-8°.
"We would require to slice off 600mm of the platform in order to accommodate the new alignment of the rail track. The platform is used by trains going on the Up line. For this work, one of the plans is to disallow halt of trains at Mahim station on the Harbour line in the Up direction," explained a WR official.
The reason behind this is to avoid people falling in the gap between train and platform when it makes a halt. The issue could be graver during night hours when the gap could go unnoticed and unwanted accidents could take place. So to avoid this, the WR authorities are claiming that they would prefer not halting trains towards CSMT until work is over in the next 15 days or so.
"Decision is yet to be finalised," said Sumit Thakur, Chief PRO, Western Railway.
The work of shifting tracks will create 3-4 rail tracks for parking or stabling of trains at Mahim. This work is a result of two derailments that happened in Mahim. Once in August 2017 and the other in October 2019.
