Maha: Heavy rains wash out rail tracks near Kasara Ghat; train services hampered

Heavy overnight rains in Mumbai and neighbouring areas led to flooding and washing out of some rail tracks in the Kasara Ghat near here and other areas and also caused mudslides and boulder crashes severely affecting long distance and local train services officials said on ThursdayAccording to railway officials some long distance trains were held up at various locations and special buses were being arranged for the stranded train passengersThe suburban train services of the Central Railway were being operated only up to Titwala and Ambernath stations in neighbouring Thane district from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus CSMT in south Mumbai since Wednesday night CRs chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar saidTrain operations from Titwala to Igatpuri in Nashik district adjoining Thane and from Ambernath to Lonavala in neighbouring Pune district were suspended after tracks were washed out boulders crashed and inundation and mudslides occurred at multiple locations in the section due to the heavy overnight downpour he saidAround 1015 pm on Wednesday the Central Railway suspended the traffic between Titwala and Igatpuri rail section following heavy waterlogging on tracks near Umbermali station close to Kasara located about 120 km from here and due to incidents of boulder crash at the Kasara Ghat according to rail officialsLater at 1220 am the CR suspended traffic between Ambernath and Lonavala section as flooding took place near Vangani station located about 90 km from Mumbai and some boulders fall in the Khandala Ghat section they saidThe CR said heavy downpour for a few hours caused damage to railway tracks and other equipmentIt said Kasara recorded around 138 mm rainfall in four hours from 9 pm on Wednesday while Lonavala and Karjat recorded 142 mm and 1291 mm rainfall respectively from midnight till 7 am on ThursdaySutar said efforts were on to restore train movement in both the sections Special boulder trains various machines and labourers are working at the damaged spots Sutar said adding that the Central Railways general manager was continuously monitoring and guiding officers and staff for quick restoration from his camp officeThe Central Railway has set up help desks at Kalyan Kasara and Igatpuri stations for passengers he saidThe CRs suburban services on the Harbour line TransHarbour line and BelapurKharkopar line were running as per schedule officials addedLocal train services on the Western Railway route were also affected due to track changing point failure at Churchgate in south Mumbai early Thursday morning a spokesperson saidThe problem was rectified around 730 am and since then the services were running normal he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever