Mumbai-Pune train services to resume today

MUMBAI: After 13 days of services being badly hit on the Mumbai-Pune corridor, some of the major trains for Pune and south India will start operating from Friday morning. However, full-fledged train services along this corridor may commence only from August 19, sources in the Central Railway said. Heavy rains, waterlogging on tracks, landslides and incidents of boulder fall in the ghat section, especially between Karjat and Lonavla, had led to disruption in train services on the Mumbai-Pune corridor.Massive repair work was undertaken to restore rail connectivity.
On Friday, 12 train services will operate with five of them being to Pune and the rest to south India. The Pune trains include Sinhagad Express, Deccan Queen, Intercity Express and Indrayani Express. Sources said due to doubling work at Solapur, some of these trains will again be cancelled for two days --on August 17 and 18 -- following which full-fledged services between Mumbai and Pune may be restored by August 19.

CR senior PRO, Anil Kumar Jain, said more than 200 workers along with Railway officials have been working round-the-clock to restore services on a “war footing”.
Jain said there were spots where the ballast was washed away and Railwaymen had to pack the soil under the tracks. The tracks, however, kept sinking due to heavy downpour and landslides on the ghat section. “It was risky for our workers, but despite the adverse conditions, they worked overnight to ensure that tracks were repaired and services were restored at the earliest,” he stated. Central Railway general manager, A K Gupta, had inspected the ghat section to supervise the work last Sunday.
Due to the 35-km doubling work being undertaken, 12 long-distance trains will be cancelled on August 17, while 12 trains will be cancelled on August 18. This includes some Pune-bound trains from Mumbai. Passengers will beinconvenienced during the weekend, an official said, adding services to Pune and south India are likely to be completely restored by Monday.
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