Minor landslip at Siribagilu holds up train traffic on Ghat section of Mangaluru

MANGALURU: Ghosts of landslip disrupting railway traffic on the Ghat section of Mangaluru-Hassan Railway line during last monsoon came back to haunt train commuters, albeit for a brief while on Thursday. This happened when a minor landslip near Siribagilu railway station on the section held up train traffic for a while on Thursday. The landslip occurred at Km 86, the spot that had witnessed massive landslide in September 2018.
The Yesvantpur-Mangaluru Junction Gomateshwara tri-weekly express (16575) was detained for some time at Sakleshpur railway station while Karwar-Yesvantpur tri-weekly express (16516) was detained for a while at Subrahmanya Road Station. Sources in South Western Railway said the trains resumed journey after the landslip was cleared, adding track will be ready to accommodate night trains between Bengaluru and Mangaluru/Karwar/Kannur.
The landslip meant that while train 16575 reached Mangaluru Junction at 6.30pm as against its normal arrival time of 4.30pm, train 16516 reached Sakleshpur at 5.25pm instead of scheduled arrival time of 3.45pm. The massive landslide in September last had prolonged opening of Ghat section for train traffic that was closed in second week of August following frequent landslides at over 66 locations on account of unprecedented rains.
An entire hillock – 25 metres in height and 150 metres in length had fallen on the track while workers were clearing the earlier debris. SWR authorities then had to deploy 10 earth movers and over 60 men to clear the fresh debris. The gang deployed had worked round-the-clock to restore the track. The Mysuru division of SWR had then executed one of the massive restoration works in the region before opening the track for traffic in October.