India, May 29 -- Taking a cue from the May 26 rains that lashed Mumbai, the railways are now taking two vital steps. Both Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) will install automated digital rain-gauge recorders as well as physical barriers on the boundary walls along the suburban corridors that ferry nearly seven million daily commuters.

Eighteen automated digital rain gauges have been installed on the Churchgate-Virar route on WR and 24 on the CSMT-Kasara/Karjat/Panvel corridors. Each device costs around Rs.70,000.

The locations of the rain gauges have been decided based on their history of water-logging and track levels in the past. The devices will help the rail authorities to pre-empt the speed and quantum of rain and take ...