Western Railway to raise tracks at Nalasopara and Vasai stations to prevent flooding

Western Railway has decided to raise the track levels at Nalasopara and Vasai stations on the Mumbai suburban railway network as part of a comprehensive two-phase flood mitigation plan. This decision was announced following severe waterlogging earlier this week, which disrupted suburban train services and left thousands of commuters stranded overnight.

As an immediate measure to address the issue, Western Railway will raise the tracks by 50 mm. This first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.

According to railway officials, track raising has already been successfully completed on both the northern and southern approaches of the stations during earlier engineering works. However, the tracks within the platform sections have remained at their existing, lower levels. The current phase of work will focus specifically on raising these tracks through the station areas, which have emerged as some of the most flood-prone stretches on the entire suburban network.

In addition to the immediate work, Western Railway has planned a second phase under which the tracks will be raised by another 400 mm. This is intended to serve as a permanent flood mitigation measure for the area.

However, railway officials noted that this second phase of the project is expected to take considerably longer to complete. Raising the tracks by such a significant height will require corresponding structural changes to the station platforms, platform sheds, and overhead electric equipment.

Additionally, signalling and other associated railway infrastructure will have to be modified. Officials stated that this is a highly complex engineering exercise that will need to be carried out in carefully planned phases to ensure that suburban train services remain operational for commuters while the work is being executed.