Bengaluru: In a major relief for thousands of passengers, rail operations were restored late Monday along the ghat section between Bengaluru and Mangaluru after a two-day standstill.According to South Western Railway (SWR), the route was cleared for passenger traffic after restoration and safety certification. SWR said a restriction of 10kmph has been placed and loco pilots have been cautioned to dead stop at every station before proceeding ahead.In its official statement, SWR said: “The track was certified fit 7.25pm. Passengers are advised that minor residual delays may still occur as normal timetables are progressively stabilised.”Train No. 17378 Mangaluru Central-Vijayapura Express was the first train to cross the section after the landslip. Rail operations between Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road were halted Saturday night after mud and debris fell on the track between Yedakumari and Shirivagilu railway stations.On Monday, SWR’s Mysuru divisional railway manager Mudit Mittal had personally supervised the works at the site, which does not have any approach road to it. The 55km-long ghat section is the shortest existing rail link between Mangaluru and the Karnataka capital.Explaining the challenging conditions, a senior SWR official stated: “There was heavy rain at the location and the forecast was not favourable for the work. Despite that, restoration was happening 24×7 and there was no shortage of labour. Because of rain, mud was sliding down repeatedly, making things a little difficult”, he said.Significant delaysThe landslip along the ghats also led to increased traffic between Bengaluru and Kerala, which forced significant delays for two trains on the route.Kozhikode-KSR Bengaluru Express, which was supposed to depart Kozhikode at 3.30pm. departed only at 8pm — almost 4.5 hours late. Similarly, Train No. 16511 SMVT Bengaluru-Kozhikode, supposed to depart SMVT at 11.55pm, was shifted to start from Yeshwantpur just hours before its schedule. Officials clarified that both these services had to be replanned because of the pairing train running late.
