Railway Board officials visit Parsik tunnel site

A team of Railway Board officials has visited Parsik tunnel site at Mumbra in neighbouring Thane where damage to a retaining wall had caused disruption of suburban rail services during peak morning hours two days ago.
Rail services on the Central line was hit badly on Tuesday due to heavy water-logging at five vulnerable spots and a landslide caution near the Parsik tunnel.
Cracks on the retaining wall of the tunnel had caused silt formation and took Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) three hours to remove.
A team of senior Railway Board officials yesterday visited the site in Mumbra and gave necessary instructions to officials concerned, a senior railway official said.

As directed by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the team comprising executive director (Civil Engineering - Planning) Satish Kumar Pandey, Director of Research, Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) Brajesh Kumar Executive, Chief Track Engineer (Central Railway) Ajay Goel inspected the 34 metre retaining wall, constructed by the TMC, he said.
"After thorough inspection, officials found that the wall is not properly designed. It is a wall with huge blocks of concrete," he said.

The team said that a 2.5 metre stretch of the wall needs to be truncated immediately from view of safety.
"TMC has been advised to remove this portion of (2.5 mt) wall within next two to three days, while modalities will be worked later to remove the remaining 25 metre portion by breaking it into pieces and clearing the debris. CR will advise TMC accordingly," he added.

He also said that the Railway minister has ordered a time bound probe into recent disruptions on Western and Central line.