SOME UNKNOWN FACETS
OF THE INDIAN RAILWAYS
The Indian Railways,
the premier mode of transport and the backbone of our economy,
has grown from strength to strength during the last 150 years.
Its role as service provider and in nation building is all pervasive.
Apart from strengthening the roots of democracy by connecting
people and places, our railways has unfailingly ensured that the
fruits of development are not confined to the metros and big cities
alone but reach every nook and corner of our country. The railways
continue to be the safest and cheapest mode of transport for hundreds
of thousands of our travelling public. The mammoth organization
and its entire spectrum of operations depict a fascinating picture.
To a great extent
most of us are aware of the history of the Indian Railways in
varying degrees. The Indian Railways carry 1.40 crore passengers
and 140 lakh tonnes of freight, operating 15, 000 trains every
day. Its trains cover a distance equivalent to the one between
the earth and the moon four times a day!
It is interesting
to know that the network of 63,000 route kilometres spread across
the length and breadth of the country has one lakh and twenty
thousand big and small bridges. Forty- four per cent of them are
more than 100 years old. There is a general perception that old
bridges are unsafe for transport. The network has bridges as old
as 135 years but they continue to be safe. In fact, there are
no dangerous bridges on the entire network of the Indian Railways.
In a nutshell, more than the age, the physical health of the bridge
is the main factor in declaring it fit for transport.
Inspection
There is a well
laid down system of inspection and maintenance of rail bridges.
Apart from routine and special inspections, the bridges are thoroughly
inspected by assistant engineers after the monsoon season every
year and detailed observations are recorded in the bridge inspection
registers. After recording instructions to rectify the defects
that may be detected, the registers are sent for scrutiny of Divisional
Engineers and further to the Chief Engineers. Bridges needing
urgent attention are inspected by the Divisional Engineers and
Chief Engineers and remedial actions are promptly taken wherever
necessary.
The number of
factors affecting the life of a rail bridge being very large,
it is not practicable to predict the precise life span of rail
bridges. But the sudden failure of any bridge is very rare. Replacement
of rail bridges is based on factors like visible signs of distress
in the form of cracks or corrosion in the steel components on
account of obsolescence and overstressing beyond the laid down
limits.
Rehabilitation
It may be emphasised
that there are no dangerous bridges on the Indian Railways. The
distressed bridges are those which show signs of deterioration
of their physical condition indicating the need for rehabilitation
through special repairs or rebuilding. As of April last year there
were 527 distressed bridges on the Indian Railway network requiring
rehabilitation . Most of them have already been rehabilitated
using the funds available from the Special Railway Safety Fund
(SRSF) and the remaining ones are being rebuilt on a war footing.
Suitable speed restrictions are imposed on such distressed bridges
and all cast iron pile bridges are being rebuilt at present.
Rebuilding of old and distressed bridges is a continuous process.
With a view to
clearing the backlog of rehabilitation and rebuilding of old and
distressed railway bridges , 3000 of them have been included in
planning for rebuilding under the SRSF involving an expense of
Rs.1,530 crore in the next few years. During the financial year
2002-03 the number of bridges rebuilt went upto 1000 as against
611 bridges in the previous year. Further, in order to bring about
stepped up efficiency in bridge management a special task force
of the Indian Railways has recently studied the various aspects
of bridge management in the USA, Canada, Denmark and Italy.
Bridge Management
Rehabilitation
of bridges is a difficult, time-consuming and costlier as compared
to constructing a new bridge. Also, the construction on the existing
running rail line is quite a challenging task. Efforts are on
to put in place a modern bridge management system. The challenges
of rebuilding of rail bridges are met by meticulous planning and
adopting innovative technologies. The Indian Railways is in the
process of making the existing bridge inspection system more scientific
by importing modern technology to assess the condition or the
physical health of the bridges. Some of these new techniques include
non-destructive testing techniques like ultrasonic, acoustic emission,
strain gauging and radar, underwater inspections, mapping unknown
foundations and testing the foundations of bridges, fatigue life
and residual life assessment techniques. Besides, mobile bridge
testing laboratories have been made operational on nine zonal
railways.
Mega Bridges
As announced
by the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in December
2002, the Indian Railways has initiated a number of ambitious
programmes through the National Rail Vikas Yojana (NRVY)
to bring about an overall improvement in infrastructure development
by stepping up rail connectivity. One of the most important projects
under NRVY is the construction of four mega bridges with a total
investment of Rs.2,636.24 crore. These bridges would bring about
far-reaching socio-economic transformation of the areas and are
targeted to be completed by the year 2007. These projects include
Patna–Ganga bridge with linking lines between Patna and Hajipur
at a cost of Rs.624.47 crore, Monghyr rail-cum-road bridge at
a cost of Rs.921 crore, a bridge over the Kosi river in Bihar
at a cost of Rs.323.42 crore and Bogibeel bridge with linking
Dibrugarh with the north bank of the Brahmaputra river in Assam
at a cost of Rs.1,767.36 crore.(PIB Features)
Contributed
by R.K.Pillai, AIO (Railways), PIB, New Delhi
