MUMBAI: Central Railway (CR) has restored the second of the three railway lines in the landslide-hit Karjat–Lonavala ghat section, paving the way for the resumption of the Deccan Queen and Intercity Express services from Wednesday, while restoration of the third line is still underway.The South East Down line was restored late on Monday after around 10 days of intensive repair work. Following successful trial runs with three goods trains, the 22107 CSMT–Latur Express became the first passenger train to traverse the restored line, departing Karjat at 11.18 pm on July 14, passing through the affected stretch at a restricted speed of 20 kmph and reaching Lonavala at 12.27 am on Tuesday.With the line declared fit for operations, 12123/12124 CSMT–Pune–CSMT Deccan Queen and 12127/12128 CSMT–Pune–CSMT Intercity Express will be restored from July 16.One of the three railway lines in the ghat section had been reopened on July 7 after train services between Mumbai and Pune remained suspended for nearly 44 hours following landslides at two locations on July 6. At present, trains are operating under a speed restriction of 30 kmph, with around 24 to 25 trains in each direction using the two operational lines every day.The third line is yet to be restored. CR said more than 1,200 labourers, along with engineers, supervisors and senior officers, have been working round the clock in difficult terrain over the past 10 days to clear debris and rebuild the damaged tracks. Heavy machinery, including a Boulder Special Train, Unimat and Duomatic track machines, Poclain excavators and JCBs, has been deployed to speed up the restoration. Labour special trains are also being operated to ferry staff to the work site.CR had announced the cancellation of around 30 mail and express trains on July 9 to facilitate restoration work.
