Central Railway on Friday started a four-day traffic block to complete the first phase of the Belapur-Seawoods-Uran railway project. The block will continue till December 25 during which the Badlapur yard will be remodelled and newly-constructed lines will be aligned to existing ones, said an official. He added that 500 workers will work on the first three days while December 25 will see deployment of 700 personnel.

The work will also see a rescheduling of suburban trains, officials said, so as to minimise hardships to commuters. Friday, 34 regular services will be cancelled and 18 special services will be run from Panvel, four from Nerul, 10 from Vashi and two from Mankhurd stations, CR officials said. “Overall, 209 services from Belapur will be cancelled over the four days. The biggest block will take place on December 25 where Harbour line and Transharbour line services will remain suspended between Nerul and Panvel from 2am to 3 pm. We have requested Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport to run more buses on December 25,” Sunil Udasi, CR’s chief spokesperson said.

He added that the dates for the traffic block, which includes the weekend and a national holiday, were chosen to minimise its impact on passengers. “Out of four days, two days, Saturday and Sunday are weekends, and Monday is a national holiday. Mumbaikars tend to go out of town during long leaves so train traffic is expected to be thin,” he said.

Work on the Rs.1782 crore project was started by the railways in partnership with the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) way back in July 1997. However, owing to unforeseen reasons, work was delayed and stalled several times before it was revived by the two agencies in 2011.