Rains derail Konkan8217;s engineering marvel

These delays have left a lot of passengers critical of the railway service, which has harped on decrease in travelling time to woo the public. 8220;I took the Netravati thinking I would be able to reach Mumbai in less than a day, and would get another day to prepare for a test at TIFR,8221; said Manoj K from Kozhikode. His train was delayed by23 hours, and he went straight from the railway station to the institute for the scheduled test.

That the Konkan Railway has not yet developed facilities for customer services like food stalls and auxiliary stalls is well known. But it is during times like these that the problem becomes acute. 8220;Our compartment ran out of water 10 hours into the journey, we did not know what to do,8221; said Indira A, a resident of Chembur. Tea and coffee, essentials during the season, became a rarity. The food packets that the KRC reached to the trains stuck in between stations through road left many unimpressed.

Nature has been unkind to the KRC, if one were to go by the administration8217;s version of the story. The tracks have been regularly inundated with muck and water. Boulders which broke loose from rocks on the either sides of the tracks have also fallen on the tracks, thereby blocking the traffic. Two derailments, one at Karanjadi by Madgaon Express and the other by the engine of Netravati Express last week have onlyadded to the problems.

On the delay in services like the Netravati which has been recently shifted on to the Konkan line, officials claim that the delay amounted to only a couple of hours. Absence of standby rakes have been the main cause of the problem. Once the Netravati leaves Kurla Terminus, it has to reach Kochi, undergo maintenance work, then pick up the passengers and return. Hence, when the train got delayed on one trip, it resulted in the delay at the starting point. 8220;This vicious cycle culminated in the train getting delayed by 25 hours one day last week,8221; he explained.

That the KRC runs its services on a single track has not helped matters either. Once a train derails, the entire line is stuck for more than four hours, the minimum time required to put the train back on rails. Last year, the KRC had stopped services after a landslide at Ukshi. Since then it spent a year flattening nearly 25 such hillocks of loose mud.

KRC officials are hopeful of running the services through the monsoonwithout any major disruption. But fears of suspension in KRC services due to unfavourable weather persist. 8220;We would much rather stop the trains than put passenger8217;s lives in danger,8221; claimed a senior official who asked not to be named.

But as of now, the only respite for the harried passenger, if any, will be at the mercy of the rain gods.