Indian Railways commissions longest 670 metre bridge over Bhima River

The South Western Railway on Thursday, July 30, commissioned the longest bridge on Bhima River that connects Karnataka with Maharashtra through Bijapur and Solapur districts. The Lachyan-Hotgi section is 33 km long and is a part of the doubling project from Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag (284 km) which was sanctioned by Railway Board in 2014-15 at an anticipated cost of Rs.1870 crore.

The track passes through the 670 metre long important bridge over River Bhima, comprising 14 spans of 45.7 metre each. The bridge is designed to fit for 25T axle loading. Presently the speed restrictions are imposed on the existing bridge as it is not capable of carrying higher axle loads, the SWR said in a statement.

Engineering Marvel

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal lauded the commissioning of the longest bridge in the South Western zone on Bhima river and termed it as an 'Engineering Marvel'. Taking to twitter Goyal wrote "Railways commissions longest bridge in the South Western Zone on Bhima river. Ready with doubling, the bridge is a part of the route between Lachyan in Karnataka and Hotgi in Maharashtra."

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Railway completes 200 projects amid COVID-19 lockdown

The Indian Railways cleared a heavy backlog of 200 projects of critical importance in key sections amid the lockdown period put in place to curb the COVID-19 infection. The Indian Railways had suspended passenger train services on March 25 and this period gave the railways the chance to complete pending maintenance works, including yard remodeling, repair and re-girding of old bridges, doubling, and electrification of rails and renewal of scissor crossovers.

According to release by the Railway Ministry, these projects were pending for several years and often presented as bottlenecks. The maintenance works also required a long stoppage of traffic. Such projects were taken up during the lockdown, considering it once in a lifetime opportunity to execute them without affecting the train service, the Ministry said in its statement.

The Railway works included the rebuilding of 82 bridges, construction or strengthening of 16-foot overbridges, building 48 limited height road under bridges to replace level crossing gates, dismantling of 14 old foot overbridges (FOBs), 5-yard remodeling, commissioning of doubling of one project, launching of 7 road overbridges, and 26 other projects.

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