Mumbai: Railways to lift nearly 60 km of tracks to prevent flooding

Besides regular monsoon preparations about 598 km of tracks will be raised this year in the city to avoid flooding and waterlogging along Mumbais railway routesWhile 478 km track lifting has been planned on the Central Railway Mumbai division about 12 km of track lifting is planned on Mumbai suburban line of Western RailwayldquoOn WR the 12 km local line track will be lifted by 300 mm between Nallasopara and Virar stations About 5 km has been done and the rest will be done by June 15rdquo a WR spokesperson saidldquoOn CR about 40 km track lifting has been done in ThaneDiva section and Vidyavihar Kanjurmarg section and 78 km track lifting in KurlaMankhurd section on the harbour line CR will be able to complete the track lifting by next monthrdquo a spokesperson saidAlso Read Mumbai Gokhale bridge work affects bid to reduce flooding at Andheri subwayOther works on as wellldquoBesides track lifting other works include additional water pumps microtunnelling cleaning and desilting of 11848 km of drains and 88 culverts tree trimming mulch removal fencing and netting in the Ghats waterproofing equipment a 24x7 control room with hourly monitoring of weather and maintaining close coordination with local authoritiesrdquo CR Chief Public Relations Officer Dr Shivraj Manaspure said adding that this year the capacity and numbers of pumps have been increased between 125 HP and 100 HPAt least 24 vulnerable floodingprone locations identified where 166 pumps will be provided Railways will provide 120 High Power pumps 15 Normal pumps and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will provide the balance 31 pumps The locations identified on the main line are Masjid Mazgaon yard Byculla Chinchpokli Currey Road Parel Dadar Matunga Sion Kurla Vikhroli Kanjurmarg Bhandup and Mulund Locations identified on Harbour line are Sewri Vadala Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar Chunabhatti Tilak Nagar etcldquoWR has also been conducting topographical studies on flooding patterns at locations in the suburbs and this year developed more underground waterways for quick discharge of accumulated water during the monsoon Five new waterways to ensure a floodfree commute in the monsoon are being constructedrdquo WR Chief Public Relations officer Sumit Thakur saidAC local faces glitch on WRCommuters of the premium Churchgatebound AC local train faced inconvenience on Wednesday morning in the rush hour as the airconditioning system malfunctioned in two coaches leading to complaints of suffocation The train had a halt for extra time at Bhayander Mira Road Dahisar Borivli and Bandra stations due to the chaos caused by affected passengers in both coaches Commuters at Bandra also stopped the train by pulling the alarm chainldquoThere was an issue of the AC not working in two coaches of the VirarChurchgate train this morning due to which the train stopped for extra time at a few stations However the issue was attended to by the Train Escorting Staff and resolvedrdquo a WR spokesperson said598kmLength of total tracks that will be lifted