Mumbai | A fire broke out near railway tracks between two stations in Maharashtra's Palghar district, damaging signalling equipment and disrupting train services on the Western Railway's Mumbai suburban network, officials said on Monday.
The blaze was reported at 11.20 pm on Sunday and was extinguished within 30 minutes, Western Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer Vineet Abhishek said.
No injuries were reported in the incident, but it disrupted suburban services on the Western Railway route. Several local and long-distance trains were running late, he said.
Commuters complained that local trains were running at least 15 to 20 minutes behind schedule on Monday morning, leading to increased crowding at stations and inside trains.
The fire damaged signalling equipment, resulting in the failure of multiple track circuits in the section. As a result, the suburban services timetable was affected, and they were running late, the official said.
"Up trains are being operated by passing two signals as per the prescribed rules due to the signalling failure," Abhishek said, adding that consequently, several suburban and long-distance train services, particularly those heading towards Mumbai, were running late.
Railway officials were working to resolve the signalling issues, and efforts were underway to restore normal operations at the earliest, he added
