The Konkan Railway sought Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ intervention to deal with the issue of power grid failures of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL) so that no train gets stranded inside tunnels and a back-up power supply is handy during the monsoon to keep trains moving.

“We appealed for the chief minister’s intervention to avoid MSEDCL failures during the monsoon because we have so many long tunnels, and now that there are no diesel engines, in case of any such failure, electric trains will come to a standstill. The chief minister has taken it up quite seriously and issued directives to avoid any such failures and have standby power supply to keep trains running. We are in constant touch with the MSEDCL teams,” said Konkan Railway Chairman and Managing Director, Santosh Kumar Jha, explaining Konkan Railway’s elaborate monsoon preparation plans.

Jha added that there will also be a diesel loco stationed every 250 km, to be pressed into service in case of any electrical failures.