The suburban network is extensively used by thousands of passengers (File)
Train traffic on Central Railway's main line was affected after a cavity was formed amid micro-tunnelling work near Umbermali station in Maharashtra's Thane district on Thursday, an official said.
Pre-monsoon work of micro-tunnelling to push a pipe structure was underway at the site, some 115 kilometres from CR's CSMT headquarters, when a cavity was noticed in the embankment at 6:30am, Shivaji Sutar, CR chief public relations officer told PTI.
For safety reasons, train operations on UP line (CSMT bound line) was stopped at the spot for around 45-50 minutes, which led to bunching of suburban and long distance trains like Punjab Mail, Vidarbha Expres.
"The cavity has been filed with bags and the track was declared safe, after which train movement began with speed restrictions at 7:20 am," Sutar said.
Meanwhile, passenger activists from the Kalyan-Kasara belt said several suburban trains were delayed and cancelled due to the incident, and alleged CR took to Twitter to claim it was a "technical problem" instead of giving correct information.
"Due to technical problem in track on Up line between Kasara and Umbermali stations from 6.30 am, Up train services are held up. Staff working on repairing and Up services will start ASAP. Kindly bear with us for the inconvenience," CR had tweeted.
Kalyan-Kasara section is one of CR's trunk routes, with most of the north, east and north-east bound outstation trains passing via this section.
The suburban network is extensively used by thousands of passengers from areas like Titwala, Aasngaon, Kasara, Shahad etc.