Mumbai local: In view of New Year celebrations, as many as 12 special suburban trains will operate from the midnight hours of December 31, 2024, to January 1, 2025, in Mumbai to facilitate smooth travel for commuters. The 12 special trains, consisting of eight from the Western Railway and four from the Central Railway, will operate in Mumbai.
Western Railway chief public relations officer Vineet Abhishek informed, "All eight services will be operated between Churchgate and Virar stations. Of these, four services will be in Down (Virar bound) and four will be in Up (Churchgate bound) directions. These trains will halt at all stations."
In an official statement, the Central Railway said that four special suburban train services operate on New Year’s Eve to aide passengers on both the Harbour Line and the Main Line.
Mumbai local train on New Year
According to Western Railway, the Virar-bound suburban trains will depart from Churchgate at 1:15 am, 2:00 am, 2:30 am, and 3:25 am, while the Churchgate-bound trains from Virar will depart at 12:15 am, 12:45 am, 1:40 am, and 3:05 am.
Central Railway will operate four special trains between CSMT and Kalyan on the main line and between CSMT and Panvel on the harubor line. These trains will depart from their starting points at 1:30 am, officials said.
Massive traffic jams on Pune-Mumbai expressway
The Pune-Mumbai expressway experienced a 12-km-long massive traffic jam, leaving thousands of vehicles stranded on the road for hours. The traffic jams were caused by the influx of tourists heading to popular destinations like Mahabaleshwar and Goa for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
From Wednesday itself, a significant traffic jam was reported in the Khandala Ghat section, with vehicles queuing up for about 10-12 kilometres on the Mumbai-to-Pune route, leaving tourists stranded. The traffic jam situation prompted immediate action from the traffic and highway police, who came down to the rescue and halted heavy vehicles to ease the congestion. Notably, this measure helped to the great extent to ease traffic.
After the traffic jams, vehicles from the Mumbai lane was diverted into the Pune lane. However, queues was too long as the number of vehicles from Mumbai was huge. The development comes as the people in Mumbai were heading towards Lonavala, Khandala, Kolhapur, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani and Konkan to celebrate Christman and New Year. They were travelling in private vehicles and a large number of private vehicles entered the Expressway and the old Pune-Mumbai Highway, resulting in traffic jams.
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