Downpour damages tracks on SCR, hampers train services

Incessant rains in the past couple of days caused ruptures in railway tracks at five locations under Guntur section of South Central Railway (SCR) in Andhra Pradesh and work on its restoration has been taken up on war footing, a senior railway official said today.
"The breaches are within the range of 2 to 2.5 km at five locations between Nadikude-Guntur section and all efforts were underway for restoration of the tracks," SCR General Manager Ravindra Gupta told reporters here.
Out of the five locations, at one of the sites the restoration will be completed by today, while at other two sites it will be done by tomorrow, he said.

"Work on all the locations will go on simultaneously. Separate teams have been created to carry the work round-the-clock to ensure that we are able to restore the area in the quickest possible time," Gupta said.
Passengers of five trains, that were stopped at Nadikude were transported in scores of buses with the help of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and AP government, he said, adding that the sudden flow of water resulted into water coming to the track level and flowing over it which created a "dangerous situation."
The alertness of the railway staff led to prevention of untoward incident in the flood-affected portion of the zone, he added.

In view of the breaching of tracks between Sattenapalli and Piduguralla of Guntur division, as many as 17 trains (scheduled for tomorrow) were cancelled and 24 trains were diverted.