Central Railway restores Mumbai-Pune railway line

The MumbaiPune railway line that has been washed away and shut for traffic had been built by Central Railway in 1984 even as the over150yearold lines built by the British engineers in 1863 stand tall and continue to be functional with minor damages It said to complete restoration by January 15 2020Central Railway is now working to find a permanent solution to the regular landslides in the Monkey HillNagnath section of MumbaiPune rail line whose closure has affected rail traffic since October 3 and should be working by January 15 2020 if all goes well The line that was washed away in the rains along the MumbaiPune Khandala Ghat stretch is the line built in 1984 by Central Railway even as the Britishbuilt Ghat section opened in 1863 which is the down and middle line also suffered damages in monsoon but has been now restored it with minor works on itWorks are being carried out at an extreme level at huge scale with the washed away portion between two tunnels and a deep valley with no access to the work site except railsOn October 3 we realised that near Nagnath village on Monkey Hill section of the Bor Ghat the land at the end of the bridge had settled We tried to fix it and offer a temporary solution but then thought it would not work fine and hence decided to find a permanent solution to the problem by removing the settled portion and extend the bridge by two spans of 25 and 18 metres each and secure the land by micro piling which involves stabilising the base by inserting steel rods deep into the rock Central Railways chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar saidThe challengeThe problem then was how to get labour material equipment and excavators for at the site as it is approx 10km away from the nearest road the damage had occurred between two tunnels with a deep valley on one side and huge mountains on the other side So we have created special material trains that ferry this to the work site The trains have to be adjusted with the running traffic he saidLeaky cableThere are groups of 40 labourers staying there and getting the work complete by 24times7 hours under strict supervision who work stay cook there Communication was a problem in the section with no network there but Central Railway has now fixed leaky cables in the area for better communication A leaky cable is a communication system used in underground mining and other tunnel environments It consists of a cable running along tunnels which emits and receives radio waves functioning as an extended antennaWith commissioning of leaky cable now its possible for guarddriver of train and other users of a wireless communication system to communicate seamlessly inside the tunnel no 49 which is longest tunnel 24kms in Bhor ghat between Monkey hillKhandala stations This has been done for the first time in Central RailwayTransporting retarded cementTo build two spans of 25 and 18 to extend the bridge it requires huge quantity of material Of this one pillar is ready and the other pillar is in the works The peculiar problem faced at the site is how to transport cement as there is no space We prepare the ready mix cement at Lonavala plant load it on a truck the process of which takes 45 minutes and then transport it to the site The material train has to wait for the regular trains to pass by and is often detained In all this process the cement would usually dry out but to avoid that we are mixing a retardant chemical into the cement to slow the drying process said Ashutosh Gupta additional divisional manager infrastructure Ashutosh Gupta senior official saidHill GangThe railways also gave a demonstration of the hill gang that performed mountain rappling to show how they fell loose boulders in addition to drone and hitech technology We are trained in this and the ultimate challenge is passenger safety We mark the loose and dangerous boulders by physically checking them These are later removed during the block period Nilesh Marodi who climbed down a steep mountain saidRestoration statusBridgeLocation Mumbaibound line at km 117 between Monkey Hill and Nagnathbull Due to heavy rain the 30 meter approach of embankment has gradually settledWork detailsbull Construction of pier abutments micropiling fabrication and launching of girder workbull Approx 40 workers at any given time 24 x 7 with lighting arrangementbull Concrete mixer piling equipment crane JCB etcbull Material carried by rail on material trainbull 2 span of girder weighing 100 tonne to be brought to site for which pier is being constructedbull Boulders 1100 cubic metres equivalent to 350 trucksbull Quarry dust 350 cubic metres equivalent to 100 trucksbull Concrete 400 cubic metres equivalent to 55 RMC trucksbull Steel 80 tonnebull Micropiling 580 numbersCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates