Bhubaneswar: As part of its Road Over Bridge (ROB) project in Bhubaneswar, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Friday installed five steel girders in just three hours.
The construction wing of ECoR, which is executing the project, in collaboration with Khurda Road Division installed the steel girders under a meticulously planned 3-hour traffic and overhead equipment (OHE) block. Each steel girder was 36 metre long and weighed 35 ton.
The ROB is coming up at VSS Nagar, located between Bhubaneswar and Mancheswar railway stations.
Executing such a challenging operation in busy Howrah-Chennai main line, required meticulous planning and coordination, the Chief Project Manager (CPM) said in a press release. “The successful launching of these girders marks a significant milestone in the ROB construction, which replaces a highly congested level crossing with a Train Vehicle Unit (TVU) count of 2 lakh, recorded during the last census,” he added.
The ROB at VSS Nagar is being constructed to replace the Special Class Level Crossing between Bhubaneswar and Mancheswar stations, which has been a bottleneck for both Road and Rail Traffic. Once completed, it will improve the traffic flow in areas like Mancheswar Industrial Estate, Chakesiani, VSS Nagar, Sainik School, Gadakana and Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar.
While the ECoR has successfully placed the girders on the piers in the railway portion, the remaining construction works in the railway portion, including deck slab installations, crash barriers, and approach junctions, are expected to be completed by December.
This ROB project is being constructed in place of Level Crossing No. ML 186 with an investment of Rs 48.2 crore in Railway portion only. Several critical works, including the relocation of electrical transformers and underground cables, were completed earlier to facilitate the progress of this mega project.