Vijayawada: Railways sets record in replacing old bridge between Ongole-Karavadi

Vijayawada: The lockdown has turned out to be a boon to the engineering team of Indian Railways which replaced the old masonry bridge with pre-cast RCC boxes on downline between Ongole-Karavadi section in a record time of eight hours setting a record of sorts.

The Vijayawada Division has completed the replacement of old dilapidated masonry bridge with pre-cast Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) boxes in eight hours successfully on Thursday.

With this, the long-pending five major bridge blocks confronting the Division were completed in record time during the lockdown.

Divisional Engineer Sanjeev Kumar of Vijayawada Division led the workforce which completed the work by mobilising three 200 MT capacity cranes, four proclainers, two power breakers, four tipper lorries, tower car equipment and by engaging bare minimum labour of 20 people.

The Railways utilised the lockdown period to carry out major tracks and bridge repairs in record time, which would have otherwise affected movement of more than 200 passenger and goods train services during normal course.

Recently, four major bridge blocks were completed by the Division, two bridges each on up and down line mainline between Sigarayakonda-Tangutur and Rajahmundry-Visakhapatnam section, where the track was washed out two times during floods in addition to the replacement of Scissors crossover at Vijayawada yard with PCC sleepers.

Divisional Railway Manager P Srinivas congratulated the Engineering team for carrying out such crucial works.

He expressed happiness and satisfaction over the team's remarkable performance by positively marching ahead and setting new precedents even during these troubled times of pandemic.

He lauded the efforts and dedication of field staff in commissioning the major infrastructure works in record time without affecting the train operations.