Railways shows its ability to meet deadlines by restoring 50-year-old bridge in record time

11 December 2017

Redeeming some of its lost prestige following the government’s decision to hand over construction of three foot-over-bridges in Mumbai to the Army, railways restored a 50-year-old bridge on Kottavalasa-Koraput-Kirandul (KK) rail line in a record 58 days.

The line was badly damaged when a huge rock by the side of the water fell on it blocking the traffic on country’s highest broad gauge freight corridor. But showcasing its engineering capability, the transporter constructed the bridge at a cost of Rs 7 crore by using 400 labourers in just under two months.

Railways ability to meet deadlines was under question after the government decided to rope in the Army to build three foot over bridges in Mumbai suburban stations to ensure faster execution of work.

On Friday, a trial run was conducted on the 445-km Kothavalasa-Kirandul line, known as the KK line, running through the dense mountains of the Eastern Ghats considered a crucial life line of the area.

The formal traffic on the track, which is the steepest broad-gauge freight line in railways, connecting the NMDC’s iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh with Vishakhapatnam’s steel plants and port will be resumed from the midnight of December 11.

The bridge on KK rail line is adjacent to a waterfall which is about 90 kilometres from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and 120 kilometres from Koraput in Odisha.

On October 6, the bridge was hit by a huge rock and the impact on the pier was so huge that it caused mis-alignment of track over the bridge as girders over the pier had also moved.

Next day, railways technical team decided that the damaged pier is to be dismantled and a new pier is to be constructed in the same place to restore the traffic.

For carrying out the work, the huge flow in the waterfall at the bridge was diverted and a path way was constructed in the difficult terrain with steep rock slopes to approach the bottom of the pier from the track, said Mukul Mathur, divisional railway manager (DRM) of Waltair Divison of East Coast Railway, which is carrying out the work.

Two agencies were hired, one for relieving the Visakhapatnam end 100 feet girder from the pier and securing it till it placed on the newly constructed pier and second one for dismantling the damaged pier and re-construction of the pier in the same place and arranging restoration of the traffic.

The completion of project, considered as engineering challenge, executed by the East Coast Railway Zone, in a record time reflects on railways capability to meet deadlines.

Source: TOI