The Mumbai Divisions of the Western Railways (WR) and Central Railways (CR) have taken a series of precautions in the city in light of the approaching cyclone Nisarga. While no trains have been cancelled as yet, railway officials said that they were monitoring the situation closely and would take call on regulating or short terminating trains if the need arose. The railways on Monday had partially resumed timetabled long distance services to several parts of the country with many trains either starting from Mumbai or being routed via the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
According to the protocols laid down by the WR, which runs parallel to the coast from Mumbai to Gujarat, trains would be allowed to operate as long as wind speeds remain under 72 km per hour. Senior WR officials said that wind speeds were being monitored using two anemometers at Bhayander and Vaitarna stations, which had been calibrated and were being monitored continuously. “Once the anemometers register a wind speed of 72km per hour, the control will be informed and train operations will be stopped,” said a senior WR official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “All rain gauges have also been checked and are being monitored continuously,” the official added.
Chief Public Relations Officer, WR, Ravinder Bhakar, said that they were in constant touch with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and other civic agencies. “We are closely monitoring the situation. We have staff patrolling sections to alert us of any incident,” he added.
CR officials said that they would be in constant touch with their loco pilots and based on their judgement would take a call whether to run continue running a train or not. Shalabh Goel, Divisional Railway Manager of Mumbai Division, CR, said that under the circumstances decisions would have to be taken on a real time basis and as a precautionary measure they had called only extremely essential staff on Wednesday.
Both the railways have also deployed staff at key areas and have inspected all areas adjacent to the tracks to ensure that there are no loose tarpaulin sheets or scaffolding that may come loose under high wind speeds. Staff have also been deployed with essential tree cutting machinery in the event of trees collapsing onto tracks or damaging the overhead equipment.