Shri Piyush Goyal reviews Monsoon Preparation of Railways

The Minister examined the current status of vulnerable areas & reviewed plans for smooth functioning of trains. Shri Goyal said that Railways is committed to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to Mumbaikars as the monsoon begins.

While reviewing the preparedness of the Suburban Railways, the Minister advised the 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.

It may be noted that even during the Covid pandemic, Railways had undertaken a major exercise for the cleaning of muck/garbage/earth of 2,10,000 Cu Meters from the suburban section by deploying 03 No muck special including specially modified EMU rakes in Mumbai.

Flooding spots of the previous monsoon were identified and customized solutions were devised for each spot Eg: Bandra, Andheri, Mahim, Grant road, Goregaon.

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 ten numbers installed by WR independently.

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

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 the construction of culverts was taken up to ensure that waterlogging is minimised.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of Railway Board and Mumbai.