Mumbai, June 13 (). Central Railway has intensified preparations in Mumbai division before the monsoon. CPRO Swapnil Neela said that 117 waterlogging points have been identified and 210 pumps have been installed. The security of ghat sections and signal system has been increased to ensure smooth train operations.
He said that in Central Railway, especially in Mumbai division, preparations for monsoon are made at two levels. The first preparation is for those areas where there is problem of waterlogging, like Mulund, Matunga and Sion. Second preparation is being done for ghat sections, Karjat to Lonavala and Kasara to Igatpuri. This year, 117 such places have been identified where the problem of waterlogging had arisen at some point in the last 10 years. 210 pumps have been installed at all these places.
He said that 18 such sensitive places have also been identified, where special measures have been taken to overcome the problem of permanent or temporary waterlogging. The track has been elevated at some places. Last year, the problem of waterlogging came to light in the lime kiln area. Keeping this in mind, work has been done to raise the track there this year.
On the preparedness of the ghat sections, he said that many modern measures have been taken to deal with problems like boulder falling, landslides, track washouts and land subsidence during monsoon. Due to these measures in the last two years, train operations on the ghat sections were not affected and the same is expected this year also.
He said that last year, Railways had implemented security measures as per IP-67 standard on all point machines. Under this, even if the track gets filled with water up to half a meter, the operation of signal and point machines will not be affected. This year special plastic coating has also been done on the signals. Around 9:10 am on Friday morning, the train manager of a local Harbor Line train coming from Panvel to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus reported that someone had thrown a wire on the overhead electric wire. Due to this, there was a possibility of entanglement between the pantograph and the overhead electric wire. Keeping security in mind, railway services were stopped for some time. After this, repair work was carried out by block between Kurla and Chembur and services were restored.
Railways has appealed to the citizens and passengers to avoid such activities, as thousands of passengers may face problems due to this.
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PIM/ABM