Badlapur, July 28 -- At around 6am on Saturday, it was still dark, but one thing near the village of K as ga on was lit up: The Mahalaxmi Express. With 1,052 passengers on board, the train was stuck on waterlogged tracks while on its way to Kolhapur from Mumbai. Locals from K as ga on were the first to alert authorities, after they realised the train had been standing at the same spot for hours. "There was no way to reach the train. We saw the passengers waving at us. The only thing we could do is inform the authorities," said Kasgaon resident Mukesh Patil, 40. Officials from Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) - Regional Disaster Management Cell ( RDMC) reached the spot around 9.30am, but couldn' t reach the train due to the water levels. "We were the first to reach the village from where the train could be seen. We managed to create a pathway through the villages [of Kasgaon and Chamtoli]," said Santosh Kadam, chief RDMC. The National Disaster Response Force joined the RDMC and by 10.30 am, rescue operations were underway ."Locals made it easier as we were not aware of the area ." Pregnant women, senior citizens and children were rescued using boats while there st walked on the flooded tracks, guided by rope sand rescue workers ."Some passengers were not willing to get off the train as the water was neck-deep," said Chetan Shelar, 39, aKasgaonresident. Villagers served tea and food to the tired passengers, many of whom had not eaten properly in hours. "Most of them were struggling to walk through the water with luggage. Some had lost their footwear," said Shelar. Passengers walked to a hilltop and reached the main road, where medical facilities and buses were waiting. CR had arranged a special local train to CSMT, which left Badlapur at 5.05pm....