Nearly 36 hours after the train traffic on its Badlapur-Karjat section grounded to a halt following the inundation of railway tracks caused by heavy rain and overflow of Ulhas river, the workers deployed by the Central Railway worked all through Sunday to restore the affected railway line. The restoration work was continuing till late in the night.
A day after the various Government agencies, including the NDRF and Navy, rescued as many as 1,050 marooned passengers from the Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express which was stuck in heavy flood waters near Vangani, the Central Railway went headlong into the track restoration work.
“During last 48 hours, since late Friday evening, an unprecedented heavy rainfall beyond Kalyan towards Karjat has caused flash floods due to overflow of Ulhas river causing severe damage to Railway assets between Badlapur and Karjat section,” chief Central Railway spokesperson Sunil Udasi said.
According to Udasi, the huge flow of water onto the tracks has caused heavy damage to Railway property like 54 points, 28 track circuits, 14 signals, Indoor relays & power equipment in 2 Relay huts, washout of Ballast in the range of 2.5 kms along the Down track and 1.5 kms on up track.
Udasi said that Traction distribution(TrD) assets like Sub-sectioning and paralleling Post (SSP) relays and battery were damaged, two rakes which were kept in siding were marooned because of this flash flooding. “This loss in Badlapur – Karjat section has put a huge impediment in restoration of train operations immediately,” he said.
Braving heavy rains, more than300 Railway and contract workers have been working round the clock to put back the train services especially the lifeline of Mumbai to normalcy. “To execute this war footing restoration work at Badlapur–Karjat section, Central Railway cancelled its Mega Block this Sunday and deployed its entire work force into this mammoth restoration work supervised by senior Railway Officials,” Udasi said.
Central Railway’s General Manager, Central Railway A K Gupta and Divisional Railway Manager S K Jain reviewed the situation in morning and have been monitoring these efforts to restore Mumbai life line by Monday morning through full-fledged suburban train operations.
Meanwhile, owing to heavy rainfall and water logging on tracks, the Central Railway cancelled 51029 Mumbai – Bijapur fast passenger and diverted four long-distance trains 11028 MGR Chennai Central - Mumbai Mail diverted via-Karjat – Panvel –Diva (instead of Karjat-Kalyan) with halt at Diva, 11020 Bhubaneshwar – Mumbai Konark Express diverted via-Karjat-Panvel-Diva (instead of Karjat-Kalyan) with halt at Diva and 12297 Ahmedabad Jn.- Pune Duronto Express diverted via-Vasai Road-Panvel-Karjat (instead of Vasai Road-Kalyan-Karjat.
In a related development, the Central Railway has come in for severe flak from various quarters as to why its officials allowed the Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express to go beyond Bandlapur railway station on Friday night, knowing full well that the tracks were heavily water-logged and it had become difficult for the trains to pass.
Unable to wade through the flood waters, the Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express had got stuck near Vangani, 69 km away from Mumbai, on Friday night. The train -- which had left Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) at 8.20 on Friday -- got stranded at Chimtoli village near Vangani railway station at around 10 pm.
Through a press release issued on Saturday evening, a Central Railway spokesperson had justified the decision to let Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express to move ahead in flood waters. “The train had proceeded on its way as water had begun receding, but after a sudden spell of intense rainfall, coupled with overflowing of the Ulhas river, the train was completely stuck in deep water at Vangani,” the spokesperson had said.
Central Railway Divisional Manager S K Jain also clarified that there was no lapse on the part of the officials in letting the Kolhapur-bound train move ahead. “There was no lapse as an EMU local had passed the spot five minutes before the Mahalaxmi Express got stuck because of the sudden rise in water levels”.
However, retrospectively many sections of the people felt that the stranding of Mohalaxmi Express could have been avoided had the train been detained at Badlapur railway station.
Following the stranding of the train near Vangani for more than 17 hours, teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), nine teams from the Navy, two columns of Army, Air Force and fire brigade personnel from Thane and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations swung into action amid heavy rains on Saturday, and rescued 1050 marooned passengers and reached to safety through modes of transport.