Railways to build longest rail-bridge on Mahanadi confluence

Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railways (ECoR) is now all set to construct a new rail-bridge near the confluence of the Mahanadi and Tel River in Odisha to boost connectivity in the under construction Khurda Road-Bolangir rail line.

This is said to be the longest rail bridge in the section and likely to help in decongesting the rail network in the state. The bridge has been estimated to be constructed with a cost of Rs 23 crore. A tender has now also been floated by the department for the proposed bridge which has been christened as bridge no-677.

The bridge site lies near Sonepur town along the broad gauge line alignment. The ECoR officials who have inspected the site and scrutinized the area for undertaking the new assignment, claim that the bridge site lies  at a distance of 2.5kms from the confluence of the Mahanadi and Tel river.

An official well versed with the details of the project said, “The proposed bridge on the Khurda Road-Bolangir new line, over the Tel River will have an influence of the Mahanadi River with huge volume of back waters especially during floods. It is pertinent to mention here that, this river is a major tributary of Mahanadi River. This is the longest bridge in this project,”

According to the ECoR, during peak floods the proposed rail bridge is likely to impact the Mahanadi due to merging of both the rivers in a very short distance with straight reach without any appreciable bends. The catchment area for this bridge has been assessed as 18,390 sq km.

The engineering department of the zonal railway has already examined the soil type of the area and found rock beds in the area and has recommended the design of the upcoming bridge accordingly. The substructure has been planned with reinforced cement concrete piers with bed blocks having provision for inspection ladder, platform, trolley refuge/Man refuge.

The department has meanwhile decided to import the fabricated girders made at Mughalsarai (Deen Dayal Upadhay Nagar) in Uttar Pradesh for the super structure. The department said that the fabricated girders will be transported to site of work, launched on bed blocks with suitable cranes and track will be laid.