MUMBAI: Railway minister Piyush Goyal has asked the railway authorities in Mumbai to rope in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai to study the existing measures to handle the monsoon rains.
Goyal had a review meeting to ascertain the preparedness as well as draw a road map to have contingency plans for the monsoon.
The minister examined the current status of vulnerable areas and reviewed plans for smooth functioning of trains.
The meeting was held a day after the flooding was reported on CR and WR tracks.
He advised railways to partner with Institutions like IIT Mumbai to study the efficiency of technical and civil work initiatives of railways in handling monsoon rains.
He said, “Innovation and hard work must go together to ensure that railway services continue to operate safely and in an uninterrupted manner.” In the past railway had roped in IIT experts to study all the overhead structures and recommend action after the collapse of Andheri’s Gokhale bridge ROB in July 2018.
Following this few bridges were demolished and many repaired to prevent accidents.
In Mumbai, railway has cleared 3.6 lakh cubic meters of muck, including 1.5 cubic meters on CR and 2.1 cubic meters on WR suburban section.
Flooding spots of the previous monsoon were identified and customized solutions were devised for each spot.
Moreover, in order to have real time and authentic rain data four numbers of automatic rain gauge (ARG) have now been installed in association with IMD and ten installed by WR independently.
Number of pumps provided on track and depots including sewerage and submersible pumps have been increased by 33 per cent.
Drones were used for survey and monitoring of cleaning of nallah in Borivali Virar section and suction/desludging machines were used to ensure deep cleaning of culverts.
Adoption of a new micro tunneling method for construction of culverts was taken up to ensure that water logging is minimised.