Mumbai: WR to deploy drain drones to tackle waterlogging on tracks this year

Installation of the camera inside a drain; (right) Drain footage; (inset) Graphical picture of the camera

The Western Railway (WR), has announced that it had procured remote-controlled cameras to monitor drains to keep its trains running in the monsoon. These will be used to monitor drains to avoid waterlogging.

"Western Railway is using remote-controlled visual float cameras to reach hard-to-access drains for monsoon preparedness. At present, 30 such cameras are in use at a cost of Rs 3 lakh. The cameras are not fixed to any given place but can float anywhere," WR Chief Public Relations Officer Vineet Abhishek said. "The benefits of integrating cameras for sewage system inspections are to quickly collect data from a safe distance, regardless of obstructions, access issues, or confined space entry procedures. One can locate the exact position of defects found during an inspection. The cameras give us a bird's eye view of the cleaning, which is not possible with manual surveillance. We are ensuring that the Mumbaikars don't suffer due to waterlogging issues that lead to the detention of trains during the upcoming monsoon season," he added.

Officials said works such as cleaning and de-silting of culverts, nullahs, and drains, clearing the muck & garbage along the tracks, construction of additional waterways, installations of high-power pumps, trimming trees, etc. have been completed on a mission mode.

"Muck removal of 1.50 lakh cubic metres has been completed and has been carried out by deploying specially designed muck special trains, excavators and porcelain machines, etc. The work of identifying flow patterns of water in yards has been studied and new drains & manholes are also being constructed to facilitate the smooth discharge of water. Suction/de-sludging machine has been used to ensure deep cleaning of culverts 24 (Bandra) and 65 (Borivli)," he added.

More efforts

. Additional waterways constructed by micro tunnelling at eight locations. 15 pipes of 1,200 or 1,800-millimetre diameter have been created at the Prabhadevi-Dadar section, Dadar-Matunga Road section, Bandra Terminus Yard, and Goregaon-Malad section. The stormwater drainage capacity has been increased in Borivli station north and the Virar-Vaitarna section.

. Additional manholes and drains are being constructed this year at 11 locations to facilitate smooth water discharge.

. Various locations prone to waterlogging during heavy rains have been identified and this year, 100 high-capacity water pumps are proposed to be installed at these flood-prone locations. This is an increase of 10 per cent as compared to last year.

. In order to have real-time and authentic water levels of vulnerable bridges, four water level monitoring devices have been installed.

. In addition to this, flood gauges have been provided at 36 locations.

Bellasis Road bridge shut for traffic

The Bellasis Road overbridge will be closed to traffic for 18 months starting on June 24. Permission for this closure was granted by the DCP (South) Traffic office on June 22. Initially, the Railways will construct a lightweight temporary footbridge with an escalator on the west side for pedestrian use.

"When the Bellasis road over bridge is closed for traffic, connectivity between east and west will be broken. There will be no connectivity to the main booking office of Mumbai Central station from the west for which, a temporary lightweight foot over bridge, with the escalator on west side for pedestrians is being proposed. The above bridge shall be commissioned by 31 July 2024," a WR spokesperson said.

"Bellasis road over bridge was commissioned in 1893. The railway portion will be executed by Western Railways and approaches will be rebuilt by the BMC," the spokerpserson added.