The passengers said they were given no prior information about the technical block and had to spend the entire night on the train. The train had started three-hour late from Pune.
A Central Railway official said the train was delayed due to a technical block between Manmad and Daund. “A block for works related to the doubling of lines is on between Khashti and Belwandi by the Solapur division. This led to diversions, delays and cancellations of many trains.
The block delayed the Pune-Ajni AC Express as well. The train had left Pune at 7pm and crossed Ahmednagar at the time of this report,” Manoj Jhawar, the Pune railway division’s public relations officer, said.
Pallavi Vazarkar of Wardha, who was travelling on the Pune-Ajni AC Express, told TOI, “I had no option but to take this train as the Railway authorities had cancelled several trains. The train was supposed to reach Wardha by 4.30am on Wednesday. But we were in Uruli at 4.30am. I only received a message from the Railways stating the train would be delayed by three hours.”
Another passenger, Trupti Raut of Nagpur, said when the train halted at the Uruli station, there was no one to share any information. “The train left the Uruli station around 5am at a very low speed. I will reach Nagpur only after 10pm,” said Raut.
Amol Agarwal, another passenger on the train, said, “The train was supposed to start from Pune at 3.30pm and reach Ajni by 4.50am on Wednesday. But we received a message stating the train was late by around three hours. The train finally started around 7pm and reached near the Uruli station at 7.30pm, following which it stood there till 4.30am on Wednesday. There was no food or water available.”
Track fracture causes train delays
A track fracture on the Down line (Mumbai to Pune) between Kamshet and Talegaon led to some train delays. According to Railway officials, the fracture was spotted around 1am. By 3.30am, it was rectified. “As a result, train movements slowed down. A Pune-Lonavla local train agot delayed because of the technical block between Daund and Manmad,” Jhawar told TOI.
