ER appoints consultant to find remedy to waterlogging

Eastern Railway has appointed a consultant to find a remedy to waterlogging of railway tracks at Howrah and adjoining areas, which affected train services for three days since Monday night, an official said here today.
"A consultant has been appointed for finding a remedy to waterlogging of tracks at Howrah and Tikiapara. A report by the consultant is expected by February," ER general manager Ghanshyam Singh said at a function here.
"It is expected that the problem will be taken care of next monsoon," he said while speaking about the disruption of train services of Eastern Railway at Howrah, one of the busiest terminal stations in the country, following Monday's heavy rains that caused waterlogging of tracks.

Stating that Tikiapara area is "like a saucer", he said water accumulated there very easily in case of a heavy downpour.
The problem is aggravated owing to very old drainage system and dependence on high and low tides in Hooghly river, into which the water is drained, he said.
Waterlogging of tracks of Eastern and South Eastern Railway following Monday night's heavy downpour inconvenienced lakhs of commuters for the last two days.

Train services in Eastern Railway's Howrah division, as well as in Sealdah and other divisions were normal today, ER spokesperson R N Mahapatra said.
EMU local services in South Eastern Railway continued to be affected for the third day today as 31 pairs of local trains were cancelled, SER spokesperson Sanjoy Ghosh said.

Mail/express services were, however, nearing normal with only one train - Tamralipta Express - having been cancelled.
Most major mail/express trains were terminating at and originating from Howrah station, instead of Santragachi station, which was being used for the purpose for the last two days, Ghosh said.