Commuters face tough times in peak hours

Commuters from Navi Mumbai had a harrowing time after an overhead wire snapped in Belapur on Tuesday morning. Services from Panvel towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) were cancelled inconveniencing commuters.

Several commuters who were headed to CSMT were stranded and had to look for other modes of transport. Rashid Khan, who works as a senior manager at a retail outlet in Andheri could not reach his workplace after trains from Belapur were cancelled. "This was the second consecutive day when I could not go to office," said Khan.

Similarly, Anjana Sinha, who had to catch a long-distance train from CSMT was forced to take a cab. "I cannot reach CSMT easily in one hour at just Rs 15. But I have to shell out Rs 700 for the same distance in a cab as I do not want to cancel my plan to go to my native home in Madhya Pradesh," said Sinha.

Later, the CR started services from Nerul. However, commuters from Kharghar and Panvel had to travel to Nerul station bus stop. The NMMT had run extra services on December 25 as there was a planned mega block. However, on Tuesday, the services were cancelled suddenly due to a technical problem and there were no special bus services to reach Nerul station. 

Taking benefit of the situation, autorickshaws overcharged passengers. Students also suffered problem as they missed their classes. "I canceled my plan to go to Dadar to attend my class as I could not have reached in time as services from Nerul were not normalised," said Pratiskha Shetty.