'Kadalundi bridge must be reconstructed to resume traffic'

By G. Prabhakaran

PALAKKAD, JULY 25. Mr. P. Rajamani, Chief Track Engineer, Southern Railway, Chennai, has written to the Palakkad Railway Division on Wednesday informing them that the damaged Kadalundi bridge in Kozhikode is unsafe and it has to be rebuilt before traffic is permitted.

The Railway authorities at the highest level had promised that the damaged bridge would be repaired and traffic resumed by July 31. But the new revelation by the Chief Track Engineer that the bridge is unsafe for traffic, a fact which the Railway Civil Engineering Department had been denying so far, blaming a defect in the coach for the mishap, has shattered hopes of early restoration of rail traffic. The directive of the Chief Track Engineer to the Palakkad Railway Division authorities would further delay the normalisation of traffic. Railway sources said reconstruction of the old bridge would take at least three more months.

They said the new bridge adjacent to the old one has almost been completed with work on the piers (pillars) over. Now all that remained was to fix some temporary steel girders to resume the service. This could be the fastest way of restoring the train service. Once the old bridge is reconstructed, if the Railways want they can again temporarily divert the traffic to the old line and replace the temporary steel girders with precast RCC girders as a permanent fixture on the new bridge. Unless this is done the paralysed train services in the Malabar will continue to wreak havoc in the life of the people for a much longer period. Why the Railway authorities have opted for the time-consuming solution is baffling, said the sources.

Since the total reconstruction of the old bridge would take three months, the Railway top brass should order immediate completion of the new bridge. It would take just a week to complete the remaining work on the new bridge if done on a warfooting, Railway officials here felt.

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Section  : Southern States
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