The newly-minted Mahim yard is an operational disaster waiting to happen, warned sources within the railway. Work on the yard that enables running of 12-coach trains between Andheri and CST/Panvel was just completed under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project II however the signaling system is not water resistant, said officials.
Officials said that the small stretch of yard was geographically too low. “Our problem is that we cannot raise the cross-over points over which the trains pass as the land itself is in a low lying area. Our signals on the tracks can function in water logging up to a certain degree but this yard does not even have that bare minimum capacity. As a result, trains passing through this point will be blocked and we will have to wait until the water recedes which might take a lot of time.”
As the signals are not water resistant, even light showers or water logging can lead to signal failure which will take a minimum of an hour or two to resolve. During this period, trains won’t be able to move from this point. The yard is strategically very important as crossovers will help trains coming from Harbour’s CST and Panvel switch over to different tracks that take them to King’s Circle and Mahim.
Another railway official said, “The problem is that if we raise the tracks in that particular area, we will begin to touch the overhead wires and it will interfere with the running of normal trains. In fact, we will have to make a separate plan for raising overhead equipment and spend money that will have to be assigned separately.” Remodelling of the Mahim yard has cost the railway nearly Rs 714 crore.
