Waterlogging slows down Mumbai's 'lifeline'

First heavy rainfall in the city brought its transportation to a snail's speed for a considerable part of the day. There was water logging on tracks on both Central and Western Railways, local trains were cancelled and were delayed, BEST diverted its buses due to water logging on roads while overall road traffic moved at a slow pace.

To begin with, the train services in the morning hours were partially affected due to the heavy rains.

In the first half of the day, there was water logging on rail tracks especially near railway stations of Kanjurmarg, Thane, Mahim and Bandra. The situation in Mahim-Bandra came under control.

"With the help of high powered pumps, water was immediately thrown out of the rail premises. This was namely seen on the Harbour line on Mahim-Bandra stretch. There was a little delay in train services but no major disruption," said a Western Railway official on condition of anonymity.

Trains were running late by 10-12 minutes on an average, through the day on WR. There was a technical failure seen at Palghar as well. "There was no disruption on the suburban section," said Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway.

However, the Central Railway was not that lucky. There was water logging seen on tracks at Kanjurmarg and Thane stations that covered the rail lines which led to delay in services and cancellation too. The WR cancelled

"The stormwater drain near Kanjurmarg station was diverted on the outside for the convenience of a building there. This caused water to flow back on tracks which flooded our rail lines," said a Central Railway official.

At Thane, according to CR officials, water came from the outside onto the tracks. Sources said that there was obstruction which didn't allow water to seep away from rail premises leading to waterlogging right outside and on tracks. The CR cancelled 21 services while WR cancelled 12 services.

Meanwhile, the railways had a meeting with the police department on the need to improve security measures and monitoring of crowd at stations during monsoon. A.K. Gupta, the General Manager of Western and Central Railways stressed upon the need for concerted action to ensure safety and security of the travelling public and advised the police officials to make adequate arrangements for crowd management at Mumbai suburban stations during the monsoon season.

Meanwhile, the BEST too faced issues as they diverted routes. "We diverted 31 routes namely at 4-5 different areas due to waterlogging," said a BEST spokesperson.