Sealdah Division uses newer tech to resolve waterlogging problems in older underpasses
: Eastern Railway’s Sealdah Division uses newer technology to find a solution to the waterlogging problems in old underpasses, including Dum Dum. They are going to use high pressure grouting to get rid of the seepages.
The new underpasses being built across the Division already have better technologies available. Railways have installed pumps and sensors there to ensure that the moment water level goes up beyond a point, the sensors will automatically operate the pump and the water will be pumped out. “These developments will ease the problem of water accumulation during the rainy season. But if you remove these three to four months where there is heavy downpour, for the balance period underpasses are beneficial for people on either sides of the tracks,” DRM Sealdah Deepak Nigam said.
Complaints of water seepage and waterlogging are pertinent to the older underpasses which do not have some of the newer technologies. For instance the underpass at Dum Dum becomes a nuisance to most of the people travelling via it due to water seepage problems. Nigam informed that their officers had recently visited the location and that the Railway officials are taking steps to remove the problem. According to a Railway official, technology called high pressure grouting will be applied to get rid of the seepages. When asked if the other older underpasses will also undergo technological upliftments, it was informed that undertaking of other underpasses will be done gradually.
Dum Dum Junction is an important and busy junction station of the Kolkata Suburban Railway on the Sealdah–Ranaghat main line. It connects the Dum Dum Metro Station and the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Three lines branch out from Dum Dum in the north direction - the Kolkata Eastern line to Gede, the Calcutta chord line to Dankuni and the Sealdah – Hasnabad – Bangaon – Ranaghat line to Bangaon and Hasnabad.
On the other hand in the south direction, those three lines go to the Sealdah, while the Kolkata Circular Railway line arises from it towards Pathipukur, and also ends to it through Bidhannagar Road after encircling the city of Kolkata through various important stations like Kolkata Railway Station
and Majerhat.
The Sealdah Division has offered a consultancy for a Rail flyover over Dum Dum, which according to officials, is a major bottleneck for the Railways. “If we have a flyover there then it will ease many things. A lot of field visits and consultancy needs to be done before we arrive at some sort of an alignment for the flyover,” the official said. It was informed that the plan is at a nascent stage.
