Chandigarh railway station will undergo its longest disruption in recent memory — a 36-day power-and-traffic block from September 10 to October 15 — as Northern Railway’s Ambala Division clears the way for erecting the through-roof structure and dismantling the existing foot-over-bridge (FOB) girders, part of the station’s redevelopment being carried out by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA).The work cannot be done with the station fully operational, so the division has split it into three sequential 12-day phases, each covering a different set of lines and platforms so that the rest of the station keeps functioning:September 10-21: Line 6 (Platform 5), Line 7 (non-platform) and Line 8 (Platform 6)September 22-October 3: Line 4 (Platform 3) and Line 5 (Platform 4)October 4-15: Line 1 (Platform 2), Line 2 (non-platform) and Line 3 (Platform 2)Cancelled train servicesTwelve train services will remain cancelled through the block period, translating into 442 individual trips between September 9 and October 16.These are:14331/14332 Delhi-Kalka 09.09–16.1054531/54532 Ambala-Kalka 10.09–15.1014541/14542 Chandigarh-Amritsar 09.09–16.1014629/14630 Chandigarh-Ferozepur 09.09–16.1074645/74646 Ambala-Jalandhar City 09.09–16.1074991/74992 Ambala-Delhi (PC) 09.09–16.10Beyond outright cancellation, six more train pairs — including the Rishikesh-Chandigarh (15063/64), Ajmer-Chandigarh (12983/84) and Udaipur-Chandigarh (20989/90) services — will be short-terminated or short-originated at Ambala Cantt on specified dates through October, with the Chandigarh-Ambala leg cancelled each time.Two trains on the Ludhiana-Amritsar route (14615/14616) will be diverted via Sirhind on October 3 and 10, skipping Chandigarh and Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) stations altogether.To ease pressure on the Chandigarh station, eight long-distance trains — among them the Sabarmati-Amritsar (18309/18310) and Amritsar-Dehradun (14631/14632) services — will get an extra temporary stop at SAS Nagar (Mohali) through the block period.Platform reshuffleSeparately, 76 trains will berth on different platforms than scheduled across the three phases — 20 trains from September 10-21, 17 from September 22-October 3, and 39 from October 4-15. Popular services such as the Delhi-bound Shatabdi (12046), the Vande Bharat pair (20977/78), and the Howrah-Kalka Mail (13051/13052) will all be affected at different stages.What it means for commutersWith lakhs of Tricity and Ambala region residents relying on this corridor daily, the month-plus window means recurring uncertainty over platforms, timings and origin/destination points rather than a one-off inconvenience.The division has directed wide publicity, and has asked for additional RPF and commercial staff for platform guidance during the works.The order is explicit that the block cannot be extended, since Chandigarh station’s peak festival season traffic follows soon after. The RLDA has been directed to complete all the work strictly within the allotted 36 days.Passengers travelling through Chandigarh, Ambala Cantt or SAS Nagar over the next six weeks are advised to check the train status before leaving home via the NTES app, Rail Madad (139), or the station enquiry counter, rather than assume normal scheduling.