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| Chenab looses claim on world’s highest rail bridge | | After spending Rs 300 Crore, prestigious project called off | | Early Times Report
Jammu | Sept 12
Jammu and Kashmir’s chance to claim a rare international fame by boasting of having world’s highest railway bridge has been scuttled midway with government canceling the arduous yet marvelous link over River Chenab after burning more than Rs 100 Crore and standing to loose another Rs 200 Crores.
As a part of Jammu-Udhampur-Baramulla rail link the world’s highest railway bridge was coming up over River Chenab in village Kauri in the newly created Reasi district. After spending more than Rs 100 Crores and risking the claims of an international construction consortium running beyond Rs 200 Crores, the government has cancelled the project after belatedly learning about its unfeasibility.
Even as the sources confirmed about the development which is all set to delay the rail project by few more years, the local administrative authorities feigned ignorance about this. On being contacted, the Deputy Commissioner of Reasi, Sanjeev Verma told EARLY TIMES that he has no such information. “There must have been some rumour, the construction work is going on”, Verma said.
It may be recalled here that Kauri, a small and inaccessible village in Reasi district, had shot into international prominence after the project began on construction of world’s highest railway bridge. After global tendering the Konkan Railways had in 2004 allotted the construction work of this project to Ultra-Afcons-VSL, an international construction consortium. The bridge on river Chenab was supposed to have a total length of 1320 metres, the single longest arch span of 480 metres and the height from the bed level to the rail level of 359 metres –highest anywhere in the world.
At an estimated cost of Rs 500 Crores, the Kauri bridge was to be completed in a period of 30 months which, however, had elapsed early last year. The construction work on the bridge had picked up only earlier this year but now the report has come about cancellation of the project.
In a letter dated September 4, the railway board announced "all existing contracts" with Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) for a 34-km stretch of the railway link between Jammu and Kashmir, which includes the construction of the Chenab mega arch bridge, have been "short closed" (meaning, terminated before completion of work).?
As a corollary, the board's decision puts a stop to the sub-contract signed by KRCL in 2004 with the international consortium, Ultra-Afcons-VSL, to design and build the Chenab bridge within 30 months. Though the stipulated period for the execution of the project lapsed last year, the consortium is yet to build even the foundation in the mountain slope on either side of the river as Northern Railways, in view of the treacherous geological conditions, could not clear any of its plans for the bridge.?
In a tacit reference to the claims of Rs 300 crore submitted by the consortium for the manpower and machinery idling at the site, the board said, "A proper record of material, unfinished work abandoned at the site shall be kept for examining legitimate claims."?
The decision to scrap the bridge was taken by the board's member (engineering) S K Vij as a sequel to an order passed by him on July 14 suspending all works on the existing alignment of the entire 125 km track between Katra and Banihal skirting the mountains at altitudes ranging from 800 to 1,700 metres.?
The suspension was meant to pave the way for a modified alignment proposed in November 2007 by Northern Railways chief engineer Alok Verma.
The proposed alignment reduces the route length from 125 to 70 km as it's based on the new technology of tunnelling through mountains insulating the rail track from landslide-prone slopes.
It also offers the advantage of a double line even as it reduces the cost of the project: while the present alignment with a single tract is estimated to cost Rs 7,300 crore, the proposed one is calculated to incur an expenditure of Rs 6,500 crore over five years.
With the scrapping of the Chenab bridge in the existing alignment, the adoption of the modified alignment seems inevitable. |
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