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Journalism of Courage
Amid the ongoing heavy rainfall in the state and reports of landslides in the hilly areas, the Central Railway (CR) is on alert to prevent incidences of landslides in the treacherous Bhor Ghat on the Pune-Mumbai section which often disrupt the train traffic.
Railway officials said several preventive measures have been taken before the start of the monsoon and a close watch is being kept to prevent major incidents in areas that are particularly susceptible to landslides, hill slips and boulder falls. In 2019, damage caused to the train tracks, tunnels and other railway infrastructure due to landslides was so heavy that it had affected the train operations between the two cities for 14 days.
Over the last week, two major landslides have occurred on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway near Adoshi in Raigad. Although these incidents did not affect train traffic, the continuing rain has led the authorities to keep a close watch in the area.
As per the officials, works like desilting of drains, cleaning of culverts, trimming of trees, muck removal and several other measures have already been done as preventive care. The CR has marked a total of 24 vulnerable locations in the Mumbai division and 25 vulnerable locations in the Pune division.
The Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Shivraj Manaspure, said, “To prevent damages in the railway network in the Ghat section, we have started taking precautionary measures. We have geared up with 300 metre of boulder netting, 40 metre of Canadian fencing and 160 tonne of stabilisation of banks in the susceptible areas of the Ghat section. We are also conducting 24-hour monitoring through CCTVs and constant updates are being passed on to the control room.”
Officials of Pune Division said that 25 vulnerable track stretches and bridges have been identified and are being monitored. Of these 25, six are flood-prone areas, 14 are cutting areas and five are bridge areas.
According to the Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM) of the Pune Division, Ramdas Bhise, “As many as 28 patrolmen and 71 stationary watchmen have been deployed in these areas. The task of cleaning the 21.90 km of yard drain, 77.75 km of track drain, 19.85 km of catchwater drain and 538 bridges have been done so far.”
He added, “Most of the susceptible locations along the Pune-Mumbai route belong to the Mumbai Division. Alongside other places, the Punchganga bridge between Rukadi (RKD) and Gud Market (GRMT) in the Miraj-Kolhapur section is the major vulnerable location we have. Water discharge from Radhanagari dam in case of heavy rainfall disrupts the railway line.”
Manish Kumar Singh, Senior Divisional Engineer, said that the Pune division has a 24-hour patrolling system in three shifts and gets updates from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) after every four hours.
“There are disaster management cells in every division, they usually work post facto. Only in the case of heavy cyclonic warnings, the railway engages with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) before the inspection. The reservoirs, dams and lakes should be inspected in pre-monsoon with the collaboration of the state irrigation department. This joint inspection is called Works and Tanks Affecting Railways (RAW, RAT),” he added.
