Traffic on South Western Railway remains affected for second day due to landslides, derailment

Panaji, July 24: Traffic on the South Western Railway (SWR) route continues to remain affected for the second consecutive day on Saturday, a day after two landslides occurred on the Goa-Karnataka border besides the derailment of a train in the section, an official said.

The landslides took place on Friday morning in the ghat (hilly) section of Hubballi division of SWR- between Dudhsagar and Sonaulim, and between Caranzol and Dudhsagar.

A senior official of the SWR said that a train running between Mangaluru Junction and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai, which had been diverted from the Konkan Railway route due to overflowing Vashishti river near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, derailed on the SWR's Dudhsagar-Sonaulim section in Goa on Friday morning.

"The engine and the first general coach derailed. But no passenger was reported to be injured," he said. Due to this, the train traffic on the route is yet to resume, he added.

Another train, Hazrat Nizamuddin-Vasco Da Gama that was travelling towards Vasco town in Goa was detained between Caranzol and Dudhsagar in Goa, the SWR said in a statement. The SWR said it had already taken several contingency measures before the start of the rainy season.

These measures were taken at suitable stations for any exigency in the ghat section during heavy rainfall, it said.

"As part that, JCB and other machines, and wagon loaded with boulders were kept ready at Castle Rock, Tinaighat and Kulem. They have been pressed into service to the spot of landslide along with the tram of trained technicians to carry out restoration of track/train services at the earliest," the SWR said. Vasco railway police inspector Rajan Nigale said that the three scheduled trains on the SWR have been diverted/cancelled or diverted for a day though the debris on the track has been cleared.