Goa-bound Vande Bharat train deviates from regular route due to technical snag at Thane's Diva station

Mumbai: The CSMT-Madgaon Vande Bharat express train deviated from its regular route on Monday morning due to a technical snag at Diva station in Thane district of Maharashtra, delaying its onward journey to Goa by 90 minutes, officials said.

Instead of proceeding towards Panvel station on the Diva-Panvel railway line used by Konkan-bound trains, the express train took the Kalyan route around 6:10 AM.

This incident delayed Mumbai's local train services on the Central Railway.

Central Railway chief PRO Swapnil Nila said the incident occurred due to the failure of the signalling and telecommunications system at point number 103, between the down fast line and the 5th line at Diva junction, from where trains heading towards Konkan proceed to Panvel station on the regular route.

After the train deviated from its charted course, it moved to Kalyan station and reversed to Diva junction, from where it resumed its onward journey to Madgaon on the Diva-Panavel route, officials said.

Nila said the train was detained at Diva junction for about 35 minutes from 6:10 AM to 6:45 AM before proceeding towards Kalyan.

"The train reached platform number six at Kalyan station around 7:04 AM via the 5th line. It was reversed to Diva station via the 6th line at 7:13 AM," Nila said.

The premium CSMT-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express train, launched in June 2023, departs from CSMT (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) in Mumbai at 5:25 AM and reaches Madgaon in Goa at 1:10 PM on the same day.

Railway officials said such incidents occur rarely on the Mumbai suburban automatic signalling system.