Railway services remained largely unaffected due to Cyclone Nisarga as trains had either been diverted or rescheduled in anticipation the storm’s impact.
While Western Railway (WR) reported no issues, Central Railway (CR) said foreign objects hit overhead wires due to the high winds experienced, especially in the section between Panvel and Roha. “At Vidyavihar, the overhead wires were damaged due to a tree fall. The issue was rectified by 4.30 p.m. In other places, there was tripping on the overhead equipment caused due to various objects hitting the wires, such as branches or stray pieces of cloth, etc,” a senior railway officer said.
CR officials said that while the ghat section was not affected too much, they would undertake an inspection before letting trains pass.
CR had postponed the departures of five train that were scheduled to leave between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to after 8 p.m. The rescheduled trains included trains to Gorakhpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Darbhanga and Varanasi from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Bhubaneshwar. The LTT- Thiruvananthapuram train had to be again rescheduled to 8.20 p.m. as railway authorities worked to make the track fit for running after the cyclone had passed.
CR and Konkan Railway (KR) had also regulated and diverted certain trains given that the cyclone was going to make landfall near Alibaug. CR regulated two trains coming from Patna and Varanasi, while trains from Kerala were diverted at Madgaon and routed via Pune.