14 June,2013 06:12 AM IST | | Mehul Thakker
Instead of heavy rains, it was a Jamun tree that made the life of Western Railway authorities and commuters miserable yesterday. An old Jamun tree fell on the roof above platform 1 of Malad station. The tree broke through the asbestos sheets and snapped the overhead wire. The tree then fell on the tracks, leading to temporary stoppage of trains on the slow line towards Borivli.
According to sources, a train was approaching at the time of the collapse. The Western Railway (WR) officials rushed to the spot and began chopping the tree to clear it, which took a couple of hours. Both up and down local trains on the slow line were affected due to the collapse. "I was waiting at Mahim station for over 25 minutes but there were no trains," said N Singh, a commuter who was headed to Lower Parel. "We diverted the slow trains between Andheri and Borivli that were running further north on to the fast line," said N David, spokesperson, WR.
The WR authorities had to cancel five train services while the clearing up was going on. While trains ran late by over 25 to 30 minutes during this period, services were delayed by 10-15 minutes by the time peak hour began which continued till late evening. A couple of months ago, another old tree had collapsed at Matunga station on the Central line.u00a0