The Western Railway (WR) has planned a five-hour jumbo block between Mahim and Mumbai Central railway stations on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, to carry out maintenance work.
The Western Railway will carry out maintenance work of tracks, signalling, and overhead equipment during the five-hour jumbo block. The block will be between Mahim and Mumbai Central railway stations on the Up Fast line and the 5th Line.
"A Jumbo Block of five hours will be taken on UP Fast line and 5th Line between Mahim and Mumbai Central from 23.00 hrs to 04.00 hrs on the intervening night of Saturday, 31st October/ Sunday, 1st November, 2020," said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway.
Sumit Thakur also said that during the jumbo block, all Up Fast line trains will run on the Up Slow line between Santacruz, Mumbai Central, and Churchgate railway stations.
Currently, the Central Railway and Western Railway are operating 706 and 704 suburban services, respectively.
Meanwhile, a day after the Maharashtra Government proposed that the general public be allowed to travel on Mumbai locals, the railway authorities said only a little over 25 percent of the normal number of commuters can be carried while following social distancing. In normal -- pre-COVID -- times, 80 lakh people travelled daily by Mumbai suburban local trains.
The Western Railway said in a letter to the state on Thursday that it can transport a maximum of 9.6 lakh commuters even if it operated all 1,367 suburban services, while the Central Railway said only 12.4 lakh passengers can be ferried even if it operated all 1,776 services.
"In the present COVID regime, a safe number of passengers per EMU service would workout to 700. So, even if we start all 1,367 EMU services, we can transport a maximum of 9.6 lakh passengers daily, which is much less than the 35 lakh passengers which were traveling in the Pre-Covid regime," said the letter sent by the Western Railway.
