India, Oct. 18 -- Suburban locals and long-distance trains on a section of the Central Railway (CR) were delayed by 30-45 minutes on Friday afternoon as the Diva level crossing, at one point, remained open for as long as 26 minutes.

Traffic gridlock and utter chaos at the level crossing has become a regular occurrence, leading to frequent delays in train operations. "Vehicles had stalled, choc-a-bloc, on the LC gate road, from 12.20pm to 12.46pm, leaving 11 train services stranded on the Kurla-Kalyan stretch," said a CR official.

This comes after railway officials met with local traffic and civic authorities in Thane last week, urging them to sort out the chaos at the Diva level crossing. Not only has the number of vehicles risen sharpl...