KOZHIKODE: The Railway board’s special approval on the rail-over-bridge (ROB) at Kozhikode station pertaining to electrification has suffered a setback as the request for approval was returned from the office of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) in Bengaluru.
Sources said that the file was returned with a few queries. Currently, trains terminate at Kallai, a few kilometers off Kozhikode, because the ROB does not have the required height.
The railway engineering (electrical) section now has to resend the file to CRS, then to the office of the chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS) in Lucknow before finally forwarding it to the railway board.
Sources added that the Principal chief engineer’s office (civil) in Chennai had to hasten its activities regarding the schedule of dimensions (SOD) of railway which stipulates the parameters for ROB.
On March 30, when Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), S.K. Mittal inspected the route, he denied permission on the Kallai-Kozhikode stretch pointing out that the height of the ROB was 7 cm less than what was required, according to the SOD of railway.
Some months ago, railway officials undertook major work to raise the height of the ROB by 5.82 metres to overcome the hurdle posed by the railway guidelines.
But that too became insufficient. Officials say that further raising of the height would cause the raising of the approach road towards SM Street, which would be a tedious process.
Railway officials say that once the electrification on Kozhikode-Kannur stretch was completed, things would move faster.
