A new railway zone, ‘DBK Railway’, with headquarters in Visakhapatnam, was set up by the Railway Board in the early 1960s for the execution of three railway line projects, recalled retired General Manager of IRCON Challa Somasundaram.
Popularly known as S.S. Challa, he had served as Divisional Engineer of KK line.
He was felicitated by the Retired Railway Officers’ Association (RROA), an affiliate of All India Retired Railway Officers’ Association, Secunderabad, at the Rail Club here on Friday.
A technical treatise (booklet) on ‘Effects of heavy haul trains on Kottavalasa-Kirandul Railway Line’ of Waltair Division, authored by Mr. Somasundaram, was released by Divisional Railway Manager Chandralekha Mukherjee on the occasion. The DRM, who participated as chief guest, released the first copy and handed it over to the author.
Mr. Challa recounted his experiences during the execution of the ambitious KK line project of 446-km passing through the Eastern Ghats.
The three railway lines projects executed were: KK line (446 km), Sambalpur-Titlagarh (182 km), and Bimalgarh-Kiruburu (34 km). He mentioned as to how the project was completed without any time and cost overruns, and also about the maintenance problems that had cropped up after the commissioning of the new lines. Former CAO (Construction), Visakhapatnam, A. Bheema Rao, suggested that the present-day engineers and officials could draw from the experiences of retired officials when they plan to take up doubling of the KK line. He called for proper planning to avoid maintenance problems. Former Chief Engineer, S.E. Railway, J. Rajulu Reddy, spoke. RROA president James David, secretary N. Prabhakara Rao spoke. Mr. Challa was felicitated on the occasion. RROA representative R. Satyanadham read out the felicitation address.
