<Western Railways (WR) lost around Rs 12 crore. Of this, Rs 7 crore was owing to repairs in suburban rakes, Rs 1 crore owing to damage to tracks, signals and electric poles. The rest accounted for ticket refunds as around 130 Gujarat and Delhi-bound trains were cancelled between July 26 and 30.>
<The overall loss to the Central railway has been estimated around Rs 80 crore. The refunding back of the tickets has cost Rs 15 crore. CR has been the worst hit in terms of train cancellation as tracks in its north-east and south-east sections were washed away.> <The Konkan Railway kept all of its trains, heading to Mangalore, Kerela and Goa, cancelled till Monday. "Four trains were restored on Tuesday and the rest will be on the track by today," said an official at Konkan Railway. The loss suffered by Konkan zone has been mostly because of the cancellation of trains." It is around Rs 6-7 crore and the refunding back of the tickets has cost us Rs 1 crore.> Let's hope these three railway zones are able to weather proof their tracks and trains. The main problem in Mumbai was lack of proper drainage compounded by high tides and the shut down of Reliance Energy. There seems to be a strong need to disperse transportation activites away from Mumbai and to develop effective backs ups like roadways and air services (equally weather proofed, for interstate travel). Let's hope that the Mumbai deluge and paralysis proves a real eye-opener for the urgent need to modernise our transportation, energy and communication infrastructure. The chalthai hai mentality and filepushing tendency must change in favour of the right measures taken in a timely way.
