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New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) The Railway Board has asked all its zones to apprise the Commissioner of Railway Safety about the special features of important and special types of bridges at design stages in future.
Railway officials said the decision was taken after Southern Circle Railway Safety Commissioner AM Chowdhary spoke of serious lapses in the newly constructed Pamban Bridge in his last November's investigation report before giving clearance for operations.
Pamban is India's first vertical-lift bridge that provides rail connectivity to the country's mainland with Rameswaram island in Tamil Nadu.
The Railway Board in letter dated January 10 to general managers of all railway zones has suggested several measures to improve planning and construction of major and important bridges, and to facilitate the process of opening.
According to existing railway norms, the executing agency has to prepare a design basis report (DBR) of important bridges which must be approved by the Chief Bridge Engineer.
After that, the Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), which is a research and development organisation under the Railway Ministry, examines the DBR and clears it.
According to the norms extant, in case the RDSO feels that there is a requirement of expert opinion from outside railways, it will recommend a formation of 'Technical Advisory Group'.
The Railway Board in its letter, adding a new step in the guideline, said the Commissioner of Railway Safety should be kept informed about the "special features/innovative aspects" of the Design Basis Report and the decision taken by TAG.
It added that in order to facilitate the process of inspection and opening of all major and important bridges, necessary applications for minor sanction must be submitted to CRS before the start of construction.
The Board also suggested that the application be submitted to the Commissioner of Railway Safety in advance with details such as general arrangement drawings (GADs) and calculations on adequacy of waterways.
Railway officials, privy to the inspection process, said that before this letter, CRS was usually involved only after completion of a bridge for mandatory approval before the starting of operation.
"However, I think after the lapses at various stages from planning to execution as identified by the CRS in the Pamban bridge construction, the Board has decided to involve the CRS at the design stage itself so that any flaw at the initial stage of construction can be rectified," a senior railway official said.
The CRS, after the inspection of the Pamban bridge, found that RDSO was not involved in the design of the 72m lift span girder, TAG was not formed, and several other construction norms for important bridges were compromised.
According to reports, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that the CRS was briefed about the status of the project and the clearance has been granted for operation.
Train services between Mandapam in the mainland and Rameswaram island were suspended on December 23, 2022, after the existing rail bridge, built in 1913, was declared non-operational from the safety point of view.
At present, all trains terminate at Mandapam and people use road routes to reach Rameswaram.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the new bridge, parallel to the old one, in November 2019 and the work on it started in February 2020 by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
It was supposed to be completed by December 2021, however, the deadline was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and various other reasons.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
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