Garbage, red ants hinder re-railing efforts at Mahim

Garbage piled on tracks posed a major challenge during the re-railing efforts, after four coaches of a train derailed at Mahim last Friday. Officials from the Western Railway said that besides heavy rains, the presence of red ants around the garbage made the re-railment a tough task and led to delay in resuming services. On August 25, five coaches of an Andheri-bound local derailed on the Harbour line.

"Our staff had to struggle due to the water logging on the rail lines and red ants on the sides of the tracks that had come due to garbage and faeces," a WR official said. It took six hours to rerail the coaches and another three hours to start Harbour line services between Wadala to Andheri.

Ironically, on one hand, Indian Railway has been talking about cleanliness and its on-going 'Swachhta Pakhwada' campaign, while on the other, heaps of garbage on tracks aggravated the derailment issue. WR officials agreed that despite all the efforts, tracks along Mahim station are filled with garbage and muck. It is one of the reasons that contributed to technical failures. Prima facie, however, officials said that the crossover has a problem as the curvature of tracks is around 8 degrees, while it should be 9.5 degrees for a gap of 5 metres between two rail lines. Meanwhile, on August 28 the Commissioner of Railway Safety (Western Circle), Sushil Chandra held a public hearing over the Mahim derailment. "Only after investigating all aspects, can the reason behind the derailment be determined," he said.