How Western Railway is working to make sure train services are not disrupted this monsoon

To ensure that the train services are not affected this year during monsoon, the railways is working to clean culverts, desilt drains and remove muck.

As the monsoon season is approaching soon, the Western Railway zone of Indian Railways has decided to take key measures in order to prevent any kind of disruption in train services. Recently, the Western Railways claimed that it has prepared itself to ensure that the train services are not affected this year. The measures have been taken, keeping in view last year’s heavy rainfall on August 29, which led to the disruption of train services, an IE report stated. According to Sanjay Mishra, Divisional Railway Manager of Mumbai division, additional measures have been taken by Western Railways to ensure train services run smoothly this monsoon. He also said that however, it still depends upon how heavily it rains but the zonal railway is expecting smooth movement of train services this monsoon.

To ensure that the train services are not affected this year during monsoon, the railways is working to clean culverts, desilt drains and remove muck. 70 per cent of the work has been completed already, senior railway official of Western Railways said. Further, he said that the division is sure to complete the remaining work by the end of this month. He claimed that desilting work at low lying areas including Mumbai Central, Bandra, Lower Parel was examined for culvert and drainage cleaning. He also said that the drainage pipes below railway tracks have been cleaned through cameras, with the help of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Also, to ensure muck near the railway tracks is removed to allow water to flow freely, additional measures have been taken, he added.
Last year, after the railway tracks were flooded near the Elphinstone Road station, trains came to a halt. Even though trains between Andheri and Virar railway stations continued its services, trains running from or to Churchgate faced a lot of challenges.

The Central Railways is also likely to come up with a ‘Sunday Time table’ during monsoon season, which will ensure that fewer trains run on days when it rains heavily. In order to prepare a monsoon timetable by predicting rainfall for the next day, the Central Railways is planning to approach the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for help.