IIT Bombay roped in by Railways

As monsoon continues to throw up challenges to Mumbai's commuters, the Indian Railways has decided to rope in technical institutions like IIT Bombay to come out with solutions.

At a review meeting, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who hails from Mumbai, advised the Railways to partner with institutions like IIT Bombay to study the efficiency of technical and civil work initiatives in handling monsoon rains.

The suburban railway network of Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) spread in the Mumbai metropolitan region is considered the lifeline of India’s financial capital.

“Innovation and hard work must go together to ensure that railway services continue to operate safely and in an uninterrupted manner,” he said.

The development assumes significance in the wake of Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar’s statement that the railways was not cooperating with the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation in cleaning the tracks – a statement which was immediately refuted by CR and WR administrations.

The Minister examined the current status of vulnerable areas and reviewed plans for the smooth functioning of trains.

Goyal said that Railways is committed to ensuring that no inconvenience is caused to Mumbaikars as monsoon begins.

It may be noted that even during the Covid-19 pandemic, Railways had undertaken a major exercise for the cleaning of muck/garbage/earth of 3,60,000 cu meters from suburban section by deploying six muck special trains including specially modified EMU rakes in Mumbai.

Flooding spots of the previous monsoon were identified and customised solutions were devised for each spot like Bandra, Andheri, Mahim, Grant Road, Goregaon, Sandhurst Road and Kurla.

In order to have real-time and authentic rain data, four numbers of an Automatic Rain Gauge (ARG) have now been installed, in association with IMD, and 10 numbers installed by WR independently.

The number of pumps provided on track and depots including sewerage and submersible pumps has been increased by 33%.

Drones were used for survey and monitoring of cleaning of nallah in Borivali, Virar, etc. and section, and suction/desludging machines were used to ensure deep cleaning of culverts.

Adoption of a new micro tunneling method for the construction of culverts was taken up to ensure that waterlogging is minimised.

The Minister has also instructed officials to coordinate with municipal corporations to check the dumping of garbage on tracks.