In the wake of incidents of boulders falling on the railway tracks in the 'ghat' (hilly) section of the Mumbai-Pune route this monsoon, the Central Railway (CR) has decided to cancel and short-terminate a few trains for maintenance work for 15 days starting Friday.
Five trains will be cancelled, while 10 trains will be short-terminated during this period. However, the route will not remain completely shut for the traffic, an official said on Wednesday.
"The CR will partially cancel or divert few long- distance trains in the Mumbai-Pune section from July 26 to August 9. In these 15 days, the CR will repair and upgrade the tracks in the ghat section, which will improve their functionality and punctuality of the trains," senior public relations officer of the CR, A K Jain, said.
Train services had got disrupted due to the incidents of boulders falling in the south-east ghat section from mid- June, affecting the mobility of trains, he added.
"To improve their mobility, the Mumbai division will undertake various infrastructure-related works. Therefore, operations of five trains will be cancelled, while 10 trains will be short-terminated during the said period," he added.
According to him, since the the work is set to be carried out in the "non-peak season", it will not cause much inconvenience.
"This will not be a complete shutdown of the traffic. By canceling and short-terminating a few intercity express and few long-distance trains, we will get some breathing space to upgrade the infrastructure and carry out the repair work," Jain said.
Patronised trains like Deccan Queen and Intercity Express would run normally to meet the demands of the passengers, he added.
Trains that will remain cancelled during this period are: Deccan Express, Pragati Express, CSMT MumbaiGadag Express (11139), Gadag-CSMT Mumbai (11140) and Pune-Panvel- Pune Passenger.
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