South Central Railway (SCR) has made good use of the current situation of reduced train movements to give long-term benefits to passengers by implementing a strategy to tone up maintenance work like long-pending repair of bridges.
A number of old bridges required strengthening or replacement with sturdy material. In normal times, major traffic regulations would have been required for the work to be carried out.
But, the unprecedented last three months, April to June, have helped the engineering and maintenance wings to carry out repairs for a record number of 23 bridges that needed replacement or repair or re-building.
Bridges chosen for repairs were selected from among the key and congested sections. These were given prime importance as they were highly saturated with continuous train movements usually and could have caused major disruptions, said CPRO Ch. Rakesh on Friday.
Secunderabad division: Three bridges over the busy Kazipet - Vijayawada section were reconstructed with masonry stone structures replaced with RCC boxes.
Hyderabad division: Two masonry bridges at the Kacheguda - Dhone section were replaced with RCC boxes and a Road-Under-Bridge (RUB) was built closing the level crossing gate between Shadnagar and Thimmapur section. This is likely to ease the road traffic movement. An additional vent was provided by the side of RUB at Nizamabad yard to avoid congestion for road-users.
Vijayawada division: Two new waterway bridges have been constructed between Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada-Gudur sections prone to cyclones’ impact. The new structures will help in strengthening the track by avoiding breaches. An old stone masonry bridge between Ongole and Karavadi stations was replaced with RCC boxes.
Guntakal division: Eight old stone top culvert bridges, one between Chennai and Mumbai route section, were replaced with RCC segmental boxes. Four steel girder bridges were replaced with PSC slabs for track strengthening and safety.
Guntur division: A new waterway bridge was constructed between Nadikudi and Macherla section, to avoid breaches in this floods/ heavy rains prone section.
General Manager Gajanan Mallya said that these works will help in increasing the safety and speed of both passenger and freight trains as it has eased the bottlenecks on the mainline trunk routes.
