Overview
- Two separate faults struck the Central Railway main line on Monday morning when a foreign wire was found dangling on the overhead equipment between Mulund and Thane and a fire broke out in the relay room at Kanjurmarg, causing signals to go blank.
- Railway teams granted an OHE (overhead equipment) block to remove the wire and introduced absolute block working, A‑board/manual signalling and special‑authority movements to keep trains moving under strict safety limits.
- The operational changes produced severe commuter hardship with train bunching, delays ranging from 15–45 minutes to longer in some cases, overcrowded platforms and coaches, and passengers walking on tracks; a Somaiya College exam was postponed because students could not reach campus.
- The OHE obstruction was cleared after roughly an hour and partial restoration was carried out while signalling repairs at Kanjurmarg continued, and Central Railway’s Mumbai Division said a formal technical investigation into the relay‑room incident will follow once services are fully restored.
- Commuters and media framed the outage as part of ongoing punctuality problems on the corridor, highlighting gaps in real‑time information and the outsized effect that faults in OHE and relay rooms have on Mumbai’s essential suburban lifeline.