Ooty: The rain and train conflict which generally emerges here during the north-east monsoon season, has just begun to surface as the Southern Railway cancelled hill train services in the Ooty-Mettupalayam sector of Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) till Oct. 20.
The descending trip from Coonoor to Mettupalayam on Thursday evening too was cancelled as intermittent heavy rains continued to lash the Nilgiris. This apart minor landslips on the Ooty-Kundah road and Ooty-Coonoor road on Thursday, were reported.
Autumn showers, coupled with heavy thunder-showers, that made their appearance on October 1 itself, have been continuing here while the NE monsoon too has begun to set in the hills here. The Nilgiris received around 220 mm of rainfall till date since October 1.
While minor landslips across the hills, especially, in Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri and Kundah taluks, hit the headlines over the past two days, a boulder falling on the NMR track in the Lovedale area near here on Wednesday evening and minor landslips and uprooting of trees along the NMR track on Thursday forced the cancellation of NMR train services till the coming Sunday. Hill residents want the railway administration to co-ordinate with the Met department during the NE monsoon season to operate train services on the racked and challenging Coonoor-Mettupalayam sector of the NMR.
In the highways sector, minor landslips triggered by the rains saw uprooting of trees near Devarshole junction along the Ooty-Kundah road which paralyzed traffic on this busy road for a few hours on Thursday afternoon. Likewise, a minor landslip near Wellington along the Ooty-Coonoor NH overturned a truck along the road on Thursday morning.
Rainfall (in mm) recorded in various stations in Nilgiris on Thursday morning is as follows: Ketti-56, Kundah-48, Coonoor-47, Burliar-42, Kotagiri-42, Avalanche-38, Geddai-34, Upper Bhavani-28, Kinnakorai-33, Emerald-31, Kodanad-18 and Ooty-15.
