Many of India's railway bridges are over a century old and need rehabilitation, which is more than what the cash-strapped Indian Railways can handle
Rakesh Chopra knows a thing or two about boxing, having been in the ring in his younger days. “Here’s a tip. If you get punched once or twice on the shoulder, it would hurt. But if in a bout, you are hit 20 times on the shoulder, that can be severely damaging,” says the former head of Indian Railways’ (IR) engineering directorate. The same is the case with the railway bridges on IR’s gargantuan network, he says. There is a point beyond which the bridges will simply not be able to endure the stress of faster and heavier trains.
And since 2007, with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s grand plans to generate more revenue, the century-old bridges have been taking a further beating with the axle load raised to a maximum of 25 tonnes. It’s no wonder then that the Railways has assigned teams to test and retrofit bridges such as the one in Koraput, Orissa. The last thing IR needs is to be plagued by another train accident due to bridge collapse.
The railway ministry has never openly acknowledged that there is a problem with its bridges. In Parliament, whenever questioned about the health of its bridges, the ministry has gone into a defensive mode, claiming everything was under control. However, at a conference held in Secunderabad earlier this year, perhaps for the first time in an internal meeting, senior ministry officials let the cat out of the bag. They admitted that the bridges need closer examination.
The irony was not lost on the engineers who were attending the conference to celebrate the engineering wing’s achievements. It included the top brass — S. Jayanth, general manager of South Central Railways, A.K. Goel, chairman of the Bridges and Structures Committee, and Pradip Kumar, assistant general manager of South Central Railways — all of whom were aware of the gravity of the situation.
They now have the Herculean task of testing and retrofitting decrepit bridges across the country. It is a huge challenge considering IR has more than 36,000 bridges that are over 100 years old. Does the Railways have the resources to pull off such a mammoth task, especially when its finances are in a mess? And what about the safety of the passengers till the work is completed? These questions are answered with an uncomfortable silence by the concerned authorities.
“With the introduction of progressively heavier axle load trains and high horse power locomotives, bridges are being subjected to much higher loads than the original design loads. Hence, the main challenge for bridge engineers today is to assess the strength of the existing bridges and retrofit them to enable them to carry the enhanced loading,” said a delegate from the railway board. The national transporter needs to carry higher loads to improve its financial performance and efficiency. With the century-old bridges falling apart, it is in a catch-22 situation.
“The Railways has spent around Rs. 6,000 crore on the repair of bridges in the last 10 years. That amount would have to be multiplied many a time to provide the kind of infrastructure that would enable the Railways to carry, say 32.5 tonnes,” says Chopra. He says in the last 10 years, over 2,000 bridges have been repaired.
A team from the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) earlier tested the Ganga bridge near Kanpur and the Narmada bridge on the Itarsi-Jabalpur line. While testing two bridges — relics from the Raj — on the Manasi-Saharsa line, the RDSO found major construction flaws that had caused the bridges to crack. “Visual observations give a clear sign of honeycombing and poor quality of concrete,” says the RDSO field report.
The Shaky Bridges
It is unclear whether “poor quality of concrete” can be blamed for the collapse of Bridge 924 that caused the tragic Kadalundi train accident in 2001. The accident killed more than 50 people when four carriages of the Mangalore Mail derailed and plunged into the Kadalundi river in Kerala. The bridge was more than 140 years old. The accident was also a wake-up call for the IR on the condition of its antiquated bridges. Since then it has worked intensely to locate and repair dilapidated bridges.
But even as restoration work continues, collapsing railway bridges continue to be a thorn in the flesh for the Railways. In 2006, a portion of the 150-year-old Ultapul rail over bridge in Bhagalpur, Bihar, collapsed over a passing train when it was being dismantled. Thirty-five people were killed and 17 were injured. In October 2009, a bridge fell on a local train on the Thane line in Mumbai and killed two people.
Last year, when there were fears of the River Yamuna flooding Delhi, the Railways had to stop trains from plying on the Yamuna bridge for a while. Their major worry was that the swiftly moving water would compromise the integrity of the structure. “Such problems pertaining to the sub-structure are very common in places such as Kerala where a large number of bridges have to be inspected underwater. This is why a number of zonal railways have already started the process of underwater inspections,” says Chopra.
All in the Name of Revenue
(This story appears in the 17 June, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)