Electric battery theft derails Mumbai suburban services

Mumbai, June 20  Millions of peak-hour commuters were stranded for over an hour as a major power failure hit Western Railway's suburban services following the theft of a battery box here on Monday morning, an official said.

The railway announced at various stations that all train services on the fast and slow corridors in both directions had been halted due to a technical snag at Dadar, around 11 a.m.

"It is found that the problem has occurred due to theft of battery box at Mahim electric sub-station. Efforts are on for early restoration," Western Railway tweeted.

The theft resulted in the snapping of power supply between Andheri and Churchgate, affecting the entire Western Railway lifeline which is used by over four million commuters daily.

Working on a war-footing, WR managed to rectify the problem manually and restored power supply, permitting the first slow corridor local to start from Churchgate at 12.18 p.m., an official said.

Soon after, the four lines became operational and the train services resumed -- though they were heavily delayed.

Thousands of commuters opted to complete their journey either by the Central Railway or the Harbour Line -- or the BEST city buses which were deployed to clear the huge rush.

The number of services cancelled due to the breakdown was not immediately available and full normalisation was expected by late evening only, an official said.