16 November,2010 06:26 AM IST | | Vedika Chaubey and Varun Singh
Local and long-distance trains crawl as stretch in Mumbra gets repaired. So, if your boss asks why you're late, flash this copy of Mid-Day
If you are a Central Railway (CR) passenger, you should leave home early to reach office on time for the next few days, as there will be speed restrictions on local trains due to the recent change of railway sleepers in the Mumbra tunnel.
A railway official said, "This is a routine procedure. Whenever we change the sleepers, we have to follow the speed restriction rule.
Instead of running at 100km/h, we have to run at a speed of 15-20 km/h. This is what happened on Monday and will continue for at least 2 more days."
The railway sleepers were changed from wooden to concrete on Sunday. In such cases, authorities usually have to cancel or divert trains.
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However, many passengers were left in the lurch as there were no prior announcements, causing to reach their offices late.
Ramesh Mehta, a trader from Ghatkopar, said, "I was on the fast track platform number four of the station but the train arrived on platform number two without prior a announcement. I had to run like many others to catch the train.
The train was nearly an hour late but there was no announcement of that either. The railways services are turning from bad to worse."
Throughout the day, thousands of passengers were running from one platform to another to catch their trains. According to most of them, the regular trains were unavailable and they had to instead board crowded trains.
The life span of wooden sleepers is only five to 10 years, while concrete sleepers can last up to 40 years. Concrete sleepers are also relatively cheaper
Hrishikesh Jadhav, an art student, got into the train from Thane and was heading to his home in Goregaon.
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"The journey from Thane to Dadar is not more than 30 minutes but it took me more than an hour today (Monday)," he said.
Why replace?
The railway authorities began replacing wooden sleepers by concrete ones in 1960 and the complete transformation into concrete sleepers is to be done by March 2011.
The reason for this replacement is that the elasticity of wood causes the fitting between the rails and sleepers to loosen. This results in spike killing or damage of the wooden sleeper by the iron rail.
In addition, the life span of wooden sleepers is only 5 to 10 years while concrete sleepers can last up to 40 years.
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Concrete sleepers are also relatively cheaper. "There has been lesser breakdown since we have the concrete sleepers," a CR official said.
Railways officials, however, claim that the necessary announcements were made from time to time. "Track strengthening work is in progress between Diva-Parsik.
Temporary speed restriction imposed will be relaxed today (Monday)," said S Mudgerikar, Chief PRO, CR. He also said that only one train might have been heavily delayed but otherwise, the delay was only of 15 to 20 minutes.
What is a sleeper?
A railway sleeper is a rectangular object (wooden or concrete) used as a base for railroad tracks. A kilometre of track requires 1,540 sleepers. While a single wooden u00a0sleeper cost Rs 5,000, a concrete sleeper costs between Rs 1,700-1,800.
100 km/h
Average speed of the trains on a usual day
20 km/h
Speed at which the trains will be travelling for the next 2 days
