Maharashtra Rains: Central Railway restores services in 24 hours

For the first time in 16 years since July 26 2005 both the MumbaiPune and MumbaiNashik ghat sections remained shut for rail traffic on Thursday due to heavy rainfall But the Central Railway was quick to restore them within 24 hours despite the extensive damageThe Konkan Railway however continued to be affected due to heavy rain and water levels of the Vashishti river between Chiplun and Kamthe stations in Ratnagiri region rising above danger level A landslide in DudhsagarCaranzol Section over the South Western Railway led to derailment of a MangaloreMumbai special train ldquoThe train suffered a derailment between DudhsagarSonaulim section the engine and a general coach next it partially derailed No passenger casualty or injury was reported The passengers of the affected coach have been shifted to other coaches The train was then pulled back to Kulemrdquo a South Western Railway official saidCentral Railway officials said they had put in extensive efforts and labour to put right the damaged rail tracks and trains resumed on Thursday night ldquoThe KarjatKhopoli section remains to be opened but it will be done by tonightrdquo Central Railway Chief Public Relations officer Shivaji Sutar said on FridayHe said totally disruptions were reported at about 21 locations due to waterlogging washout of embankments boulders and landslides in ghats and rivers flowing over danger level About 4300 cubic metres of embankment was washed out and about 1900 cubic metres soil was involved in landslides Boulders also fell in some sectionsldquoIn the unprecedented extremely heavy rainfall in the Bhor and Thul ghats on Central Railway the routes of TitwalaIgatpuri and AmbarnathLonavala bore the brunt leading to fallen boulders track wash out soil on track waterlogging fallen trees damage to signal posts OHE etc affecting train services on both the sections The intensity of rainfall from midnight can be gauged as Kasara received 136 mm rainfall in just 4 hours and Karjat received 868 mm in 1 hour from 1 am to 2 am Around 510 am train services were suspended by Konkan Railway between Chiplun and Kamathe stations due to the Vashishti river rising above the danger levelrdquo an official addedHow lines were restoredContinuous monitoring 24x 7 by senior railway officers for early restoration of traffic and working of boulder special trains various machines labourers etc helped start work immediately at affected sites The Railway administration ensured that no trains were held up in between stations and regulated them at stations like Kasara Igatpuri Badlapur Khadavali etc A few trains were cancelled diverted short terminated and short originated en route stations Despite heavy rainfall and blockage of roads Railways removed hurdles like fallen boulders fallen trees track washout etc to make way for three trains stuck in Thul ghat section and one train in Bhor ghat section to a safer station An NDRF team was kept ready at Kasara for any eventualityFixed in 12 hoursThe AmbarnathBadlapur section was restored in a record time of 12 hours and the suburban services were extended from Ambarnath to Badlapur at 1035 am Gradually every section was made fit for traffic and suburban services started running on all sections from 930 pm Train services towards Nashik started from 300 pm and towards Pune from 1130 pm on ThursdayAt least 50 long distance trains including intercity trains were cancelled 50 38 long distance trains were diverted and 50 long distance trains including intercity trains were short terminated50No of trains cancelled21No of locations where disruptions were reported