RailEnquiry

Jolted by Thursday night’s shocking accident between Kasara and Umbermali, where a large boulder fell on the tracks following a landslide on the adjoining hillock, Central Railway (CR) has decided to remove large portions of the two hillocks adjoining the railway tracks.The landslide caused the derailment of 11 compartments of a suburban local train and four bogies of an express train which resulted in the death of a woman commuter and injury to at least 14 others.A senior CR official from the Mumbai division said that so far, railway engineers only focused on spots vulnerable to landslides, but now they would have to be more cautious.“The Kasara-Igatpuri section was not known for landslides of major concern. We are now planning to cut down the hillocks through which tracks pass,” the official said, and refused to give a timeframe for the work to be concluded within. Presently, the CR builds retaining walls for preventing mud accumulation on tracks and installs nets for preventing boulders from falling on tracks. The official said the CR will now inspect the entire ghat section for vulnerable spots as a preventive measure.CR general manager Subodh Jain said that the idea is to create a bigger margin between the tracks and hillocks so that in case landslides do occur, or excess water trickles down, the debris could accumulate in the concrete drain which will be built near the tracks. “We will widen the space occupied by tracks between the two hillocks by cutting them vertically. So, if a landslide occurs , it will not fall directly on the tracks but on the side. The distance from the centre of the tracks to the hillock will be increased by 50cms,” he explained.

Meanwhile, an official statement from the CR announced resumption of normal train movement . It said, “Rail traffic has been restored on Up line between Kasara-Umbermali from 1.00pm on July 21. Down line was restored at 8.20pm on July 20. With this, the rail traffic on North-east line (Kalyan-Kasara section) is fully functional.”