Mumbai railways wake up to waterlogging

As the monsoon nears, railway authorities have sought to assure Mumbaikars that this year, there will be no disruptions in suburban services, which usually witness substantial breakdowns every rainy season.

The Western Railway (WR) has added Digital Axel Counters (DACs) on standby in case the track circuiting system fails, and in turn causes signal failures, at nearly 500 flood-prone areas. DACs are trackside equipment which, when the train passes, count and store the number of axles by means of a software at both ends of the track. The counts are compared, and when they become equal, the track section is shown clear for the next train to pass.

Central Railway (CR), on its part, has carried out extensive cleaning of drains along tracks and below them, to prevent flooding.

“WR has not faced a single incident of major disruption of traffic during monsoon for the last two to three years. This year, before starting the preparations (on the basis of) analysis of rainfall over the last three years, flood-prone areas have been identified. They include Marine Lines, Charni Road-Grant Road, Mumbai Central, Elphinstone Road, Dadar, Mahim, Andheri-Jogeshwari and Nalasopara-Virar,” said chief spokesperson of WR Sharat Chandrayan. “We expect better services this monsoon as close to 500 flood-prone areas have been provided with standby arrangements in the form of DAC.”

Vidyadhar Malegaonkar, chief spokesperson of CR, said, “The civic body has given us Rs1.7 crore for getting drains along the tracks and inside our limits cleaned; work is progressing satisfactorily. We expect to finish by May 31.”

Explaining the cleaning process on CR’s extensive network which suffers from waterlogging every monsoon, he said, “We have also brought in decommissioned electric multiple unit coaches for lifting gunny bags from tracks to disposal points. About 10,000-12,000 bags have been filled so far and they will be disposed of soon.”