The Central Railway is sitting duck when it comes to addressing problems of level crossing gates. The issue persisting for over two days, escalated Thursday morning - when trains were held up one behind the other. This created trouble for the 45 lakh daily commuters on Central Railway. Sources said that the reason behind local trains running late by 15-20 minutes is the Kalwa level crossing gate being open for long time. The issue first cropped up on Wednesday evening when the Thane Municipal Corporation authorities were working near the LC gate in Kalwa. A pipeline near the LC gate burst open, leading to the need for repair works. In order to fix this, there road was being dug, and this led to traffic snarls. "The motorists continued to use the LC gate even after the stipulated three minutes time duration. Road work caused traffic jams, and this led to trains coming to a halt," said a Central Railway official. The problems on Thursday morning escalated due to ongoing pipeline. The work on the road overbridge is already slow paced. Making the situation worse, was an accident wherein a truck rammed into the level closing the LC gate. This happened at 9.45 am and it was cleared only after 10 am. Senior CR officials said that unless they did not remove this truck, they could not operate the LC gate. "The CR authorities are not doing much to shut down the LC gate and replace it with ROB. The rail authorities rarely listen to our views," said Madhu Kotian, president, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.

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