Central Railway (CR) suburban services were affected last evening due to the major fire in Dana Bandar slums along the tracks between Sandhurst Road and Masjid stations
Fire in Dana Bandar slums near Masjid railway tracks. Pic/Datta Kumbhar
Central Railway (CR) suburban services were affected last evening due to the major fire in Dana Bandar slums along the tracks between Sandhurst Road and Masjid stations. The fire brigade got a call about a level-3 fire around 6.05 pm. Locals claimed that the blaze had started around 5.45 pm.
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With the railway line right next to the affected area, CR sources said they had to shut down the services on Up and Down fast lines by 6 pm.
“We had to take the precautionary measure of shutting down train services on the fast lines between 6 pm and 7.15 pm. The slow and Harbour lines were functioning,” said Narendra Patil, chief PRO, Central Railway.
Transportation woes
Train services hadn’t normalised till the time of going to press as, officials said, they were keeping a watch on the fire. They added that it being peak hours it was difficult to state the number of cancelled services, which could go up to 16.
Slow trains were running late by 25 minutes, while fast trains had to be diverted, and many were terminated at Dadar and Byculla.
The BEST ran buses on two additional routes starting from CST in the evening. “This was done to help the affected commuters,” said Manoj Varhade, spokesperson, BEST.
Taxis and mobile aggregators, on the other hand, were found overcharging or refusing to ply. As the number of people exiting CST due to trains being affected increased, mobile aggregators levied surge pricing.
A major blaze
The fire brigade reached the spot around 6.16 pm and categorised it as a level-3 fire within six minutes. “The blaze, which broke out in the slums near the tracks in Masjid, was confined to 20 hutments and godowns there. We deployed 12 fire engines and six water tankers,” said chief fire officer PS Rahangdale.
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