These areas fall under the Kalyan-Kasara and Kalyan-Karjat belt. Last monsoon, huge rocks and slush had flown into tracks and derailed the Rajdhani Express at Asangaon.
Rail authorities want to avoid any accident during the monsoons and are not ready to take any chances this time. So, in a first, they have done a recce of all locations near hills using drones. These areas fall under the Kalyan-Kasara and Kalyan-Karjat belt. Last monsoon, huge rocks and slush had flown into tracks and derailed the Rajdhani Express at Asangaon.
The Central Railway authorities have completed initial inspection work using drones at these routes, which are almost 50 km in length. "We carried out inspection using drones at the mid-sections falling beyond Kalyan," said SK Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.
The drones were used to identify the loose stretches where the slopes are closer to the tracks. CR officials said that the inspection of vulnerable spots shall continue till April-May as part of pre-monsoon preparedness. There are two rail lines on both these stretches and it is likely that the survey will cover Lonavala and Igatpuri, too.
The drones will give them a hawk-eyed view of the condition and check locations personally where hills or rocks come too close to the rail lines. They usually cut rocks and build fences to prevent rocks from falling on tracks.
The CR authorities are also looking at a similar method of inspection in the southern region of Mumbai. Sources said that they want to follow a similar process at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT)-Kalyan and CSMT-Panvel routes. However, they have not got the permission from the police yet.
"We have not got permissions to do the same on Harbour line and between CSMT-Kalyan routes," confirmed Jain. The railways are bound by rules for using drones. The Harbour line is close to vital installations of defence, ports, and oil tanks.
- On August 29, 2017, a large amount of red soil turned into slush and flowed right onto the tracks between Asangaon and Vasind.
- This resulted in the derailment of six coaches of the Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express.
- One of the main reasons behind the mud slide was the work being carried out to construct a third rail line, that had loosened the soil particles.
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