Central Railway in Mumbai uses the lockdown period to improve on the rail infrastructure

The Central Railways in Mumbai has used the lockdown period to improve on its rail infrastructure. It has taken up the complex job to widen its two important culverts connecting to the Kurla crashed nullah.

One is located near the Kurla, one of the most sensitive suburban sections of CR during monsoon while the other is close to Tilak Nagar station in harbour line. According to Shalabh Goel, divisional railway manager of CR’s Mumbai, the renovation work is touted to improve the rail conditions vastly and better the punctuality of the trains. This work was on hold for a long time and the successful completion of the repair work can now prove to be beneficial for the local commuters of the Central Railway.

In Kurla, two additional pipes of 1.8m wide and 100m long placed for capacity augmentation of the culvert during the monsoons. This increases the capacity of the drainage carrying capacity of the culvert.

In most of the suburban areas, as a consequence of unregulated overhead wires and temperature variation, the overhead wire of cross overs has gotten disturbed. To overcome this problem, all cross overs were checked hotline by tower wagon and 22 of them adjusted in power blocks. During the lockdown period despite the availability of only 10-15 per cent of the regular field staff it has been ensured that important works for monsoon preparation are going on as per target in suburban section of CCG-VR section.

A sufficient number of point machines have been readied by the signal workshop and kept as spare for replacement in case of monsoon flooding. Vulnerable signal boxes have been raised in flood-prone areas. Staff have been continuously imparted training for monsoon drills. Earth-resistance of Telecom installations of Churchgate-Virar Section is being checked and maintained at the desired level. Routers, Switches, LAN Extenders, wire connections of UTS & PRS are being checked, cleaned and where there is a wiring issue, the same is being replaced. Earth resistance of this equipment has also checked to ensure the proper functioning of the railways during the monsoon season.