Heavy rain created havoc on railway lines on Thursday as tracks were uprooted on the Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Nashik and Mumbai Konkan lines. On the Central Railway (CR), rail lines were damaged beyond immediate repair, uprooted by falling boulders and buried by mudslides. Services on the suburban section were completely restored by Thursday evening, while work on the rest was going on.

“Since rail lines in the hills are aligned away from roads, there were big challenges like no road approach in the ghat section, continuous heavy rain, and damage at various locations—making the machine operation more complex,” said CR Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar. A large number of passengers were stranded in trains for over 15 hours though many of them shifted to buses arranged at the last minute.