New Pamban Bridge: Center sets up panel to assess and address CRS issues | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Noting the “glaring deficiencies”, including safety issues, identified by the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) in the planning and implementation of new Pamban bridge in Tamil Nadu, which will replace the century-old bridge, the railway ministry has constituted a five-member committee with wide powers to look into all issues and submit a report within one and a half months.
This just over 2 km long bridge is India’s first vertical lift bridge connecting the mainland to Rameswaram. In its authorization letter for allowing train operation, the CRS, South Circle, has pointed out deficiencies in the bridge and asked the railways to correct them before commencing train operation.
There is no clarity on whether the bridge will be opened for train use before the panel submits its report. Earlier, the Southern Railway was considering opening the bridge in the next two weeks.
The committee consists of bridge experts from the Railway Board, Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) and Southern Railways, along with an independent safety consultant. It will conduct an in-depth safety analysis to cover all aspects of the project.
In his letter to the Southern Railway, CRS, AM Chowdhary, he mentioned that the bidge is “a poor example of building a major structure, with glaring errors right from the planning stage to execution” and also ticked off the railways. ​saying, “The Railway Board is ignoring its own guidelines” by disconnecting RDSO from the project.
In an official statement, the railway ministry said that the design of the bridge was done by TYPSA, an international consultant, and the bridge was designed with European and Indian codes. The design has been pilot checked by IIT-Chennai. “Since it was designed by a foreign consultant, the Railway Board anticipated technical limitations in the examination of the design by the Railways and the RDSO,” the report said.
The ministry said that after a double check, the design of the bridge was approved by the Southern Railway. It said the change in RDSO design for approach girders to meet local restrictions has also been checked by IITs Madras and IIT Bombay and approved by Southern Railway.
On the technical precautions taken, the ministry said that welding of structural parts had been 100% checked using the latest Phase Array Ultrasonic Testing and involving the Welding Research Institute, Trichy, along with a test check by the Southern Railway . “For corrosion protection, a special paint scheme has been implemented for use in extremely corrosion-prone areas of the world, using polysiloxane paint with a design life of 35 years,” the report said.
It was supposed to be completed by December 2021, but the deadline was initially extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and later due to various technical and weather conditions.
According to the Southern Railway, the 2.05 km bridge will enable the railways to run trains at a higher speed and will also increase traffic between mainland India and Rameswaram.
Until a road bridge was built in 1988, train services were the only link connecting Mandapam to Rameswaram Island in the Gulf of Mannar.