Title - Train traffic sliding back to normal

SINDI (RAILWAY): Harried railway passengers can now heave a sigh of relief with trains beginning to roll on the second track damaged by rains last Friday near Sindi in Wardha district. Last six days must have perhaps seen the biggest detention of trains in Indian Railways.

The first train to pass through the newly repaired up line (towards Mumbai) was Gondia-Kolhapur Maharashtra Express at 11.30am n Thursday. Since then, at least 15 more had passed till 5pm through the 360 metres restored tracks damaged due to flooding in Pipra nullah near Sindi Railway. However, both tracks are still not fit for operating loaded freight trains.

The down line (towards Nagpur) was restored after 60 hours on Monday morning. It took over 134 hours to ready the up line due to continuing rains. Till Thursday, a limited number of trains was moving on down line and at least three were cancelled while three operated partially. Besides, eight trains were diverted. For the next few days, trains may continue to run late due to diversions and rescheduling.

By Thursday afternoon, all passenger trains started moving on both lines on the affected patch at speed of 15-20 kmph. Most trains that were diverted via Itarsi, Khandwa and Bhusawal besides Badnera, Amravati and Narkhed passed through Sindi Railway on Thursday. Though both the tracks have been restored, they are tracks still at lower than usual level. Central Railway divisional railway manager (DRM) Brijesh Dixit showed mediamen the enormity of the tast. Senior divisional safety officer (SrDSO) S K Solanki and senior divisional mechanical engineer (SrDME) Rajesh Dwivedi were also present.

"Now that the up line has been set right, we will take a 17-hour block beginning Thursday night to bring the down line to proper level." The railways have not withdrawn earthmoving machines and men from the site, in case there's another emergency. Dixit said around 800-1000 men were still at work in different shifts.

The huge 5.50 to 3.5 metres gap beneath the hanging tracks was filled. It required around 20,000 cubic metre material including boulders, soil and ballast. Around 500 wagons of material was utilized and more of it will be required to level the tracks, said Dixit.

Asked if the danger could not have been anticipated, Dixit said, "It happened out of the blue. Never in the history had the spot given in. There is list of 40 such vulnerable places in Nagpur division where regular monitoring is done. Pipri nullah turned out to be an exception and has now been added to the list."

The disaster put huge financial burden on railways and the overall loss of passenger and freight trains detention, diversion cost besides expenses towards restoration of tracks may be around Rs100 crore. In the last five days, railways refunded Rs85 lakh to passengers towards cancellation of tickets.