PUNE: Central Railway (CR) services were disrupted for some time Friday morning after the main locomotive of the Deccan Express developed a sudden technical snag between Shelu and Neral railway stations. The hitch affected both suburban local services and long-distance express trains heading towards Pune and Mumbai, inconveniencing thousands of commuters during the peak morning rush hour.According to official data, a total of 1,251,259 students registered for the admission process across Maharashtra while 887,264 students completed both part 1 and part 2 of the admission application process by confirming their college preferences. (HT)The Deccan Express, which usually arrives at Karjat railway station at around 8.55 am, reached nearly two hours late on Friday due to the locomotive failure. The train was later sent out towards Pune from Karjat at around 10.55 am after railway authorities carried out emergency operational arrangements.The disruption also impacted suburban railway operations on the busy CR corridor. A Khopoli-bound local train running behind the Deccan Express was diverted back towards Mumbai from Badlapur station. Several Mumbai-bound suburban local trains were delayed by nearly 15 to 20 minutes, leading to overcrowding and inconvenience for office-goers and daily commuters during the morning peak period.Railway workers and officials rushed to restore normal movement after the technical snag was reported. Following clearance of the route for the Deccan Express, both local and express train services gradually returned to normalcy.Hemant Kumar Behera, spokesperson of the Pune railway division, said, “There was some issue with the loco engine of the Deccan Express between Shelu and Neral stations. The locomotive was immediately changed within one hour-and-sixteen minutes. Due to this issue, only two trains — the Udyan Express and the Koyna Express — were delayed by around one hour today. All other trains were operated as per schedule.”Passengers, however, expressed concern over the disruption during one of the busiest travel hours of the day, stating that even short delays on the suburban corridor cause a cascading impact on overall railway operations.