Hassan: Train services are unlikely to resume to Bengaluru and Mangaluru via Sakleshpur in Hassan for another 10 days as the South Western Railway, Mysuru division, is still clearing the debris from the recent landslides between Sakleshpur and the Subramanya Road Railway stations in the Western Ghats.
All five express trains and five goods trains carrying fuel run via Sakleshpur to Bengaluru and Mangaluru every day have been cancelled until the tracks are cleared.
With the ghats receiving 344 mm of rain in just a day in August, a huge quantity of mud and a large number of boulders have descended on the tracks from the hillsides. But with no let-up in the rain the railways are having a hard time removing the debris and repairing the tracks, which could hold up the train services even more .
“At five places in the ghats, there's huge erosion under the tracks, which needs to be tackled. There cannot be any train movement in the Ghats for at least 10 days,” said a SWR official.
The rail route via Sakleshpur in the ghat region was declared vulnerable to landslips after it saw 40 landslides in a week at various spots during the recent downpour. As much as 500 cubic metres of debris was deposited on the tracks between Shirivagilu and Subramanya Road Railway Stations on August 6 and another 25,000 cubic meters a day after on the same spot, which still hasn't been cleared.
