Visakhapatnam: Train services on Kothavalasa-Kirandul line which had remained disrupted for about two months is all set to resume from December 12.
Racing against time, the Waltair Railway Division has restored the damaged bridge on the KK Line before two days of the deadline and a trial run was conducted with tower wagon on Friday. Divisional Railway Manager (Waltair) Mukul Saran Mathur said “The target was to commission the bridge in 60-days. But, we did it in 58 days. Besides, the restoration works, few days were spent in removing the machinery, material from the nearby area before full-scale operations.” The railway bridge (No-249) between Borraguhalu and Chimidipalli Railway Station in Kottavalasa-Koraput-Kirandul (KK) Rail Line had been affected badly by a huge rock that fell on to pier No1 on October 6.
This train line is running through the dense of the Eastern Ghats Mountain which is very crucial for the lifeline of the country. The bridge of the rail line is adjacent to the Waterfall having the scenic beauty which is about 90 Km from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and 120 Km from Koraput in Odisha. In this mammoth restoration work, one each of 34-tonne rock breaker, three excavators of 300, 200 and 75-tonne capacity were used. Concrete work was done by pumping without the help of manual work by labourers.
According to railway officials, the bridge was constructed with an expenditure of only Rs 7 crore by using 400 labourers during the period of 58 days. This is the record of any bridge work completed in such a short a period of time. The impact on the pier was so huge that upper part of the pier from hit portion got sheared, separated and moved towards the valley by 1.6 metres. This had caused misalignment of track over the bridge as girders over the pier had also moved along with the pier.
On December 7, the technical team of the Waltair division and headquarters in consultation with Walter DRM had decided that the damaged pier is to be dismantled and a new pier is to be constructed in the same place to restore the traffic. The affected pier was dismantled and reconstructed again. 100 feet girder from the temporary crib base released and placed it on the newly constructed pier. 40 feet girder was placed in the middle span and re-linking and restoring the track.
For doing the above activities, the huge flow in the waterfall at the bridge was diverted. In the difficult terrain with steep rock slopes, a pathway was constructed to approach the bottom of the pier from the track. For the works, the path of the waterfall was also to be diverted and 40 feet girder in the middle span was taken out with 120-ton Railway Crane.
