To reinforce safety, Indian Railways completes 3rd party audit of 815 bridges, ROBs and FOBs

Indian Railways on Thursday informed that it has completed a third-party audit of 815 bridges, road over bridges (RoBs) and foot over bridges (FoBs), out of 1107 identified.

"Indian Railways has a vast network of 1,50,390 bridges on its tracks across the country. In addition, 3,449 Road Over Bridges (ROBs) have been provided to facilitate the public to cross the tracks on roads. For passenger/pedestrian crossing, 3,771 FOBs are provided by Railways for convenience of public/rail users, as of 01.04.2020," read a press statement from the Ministry of Railways.

It said, Indian Railways follows a well established system of annual inspection and maintenance of railway bridges/ROBs/FOBs by the designated railway officials as per the laid down schedule. "To establish more confidence and reliability on the existing infrastructure, in 2018 it was decided in 2018 to carryout third party audit of identified and critical bridges/ROBs/FOBs to have an independent expert view on the condition of the bridge."

The objective of the third party inspection by expert agencies was to have a 'bird's eye view' of the condition of critical components which may have been adversely affected in corrosion prone areas. The third-party audit of critical bridges/ROBs/FOBs is being done by expert agencies like IITs, NITs, SERC etc. Zonal railways were advised to carry out a one time third-party technical audit of the bridges duly checking all aspects of the bridge (strength assessment including NDT testing, design adequacy for present day loading, physical condition etc. as considered necessary) by engaging expert national/international agencies.

The third-party audit of the bridges were undertaken as per the following priority:-All mega bridges, Railway Bridges with ORN 1 ratings, ROBs & FOBs., Railway Bridges with ORN 2 ratings and bridges with speed restrictions, All important bridges more than 80 yrs old and Any other bridge which railway consider critical from condition point of view.

Major benefits of the third-party audit was realised in Mumbai area where dilapidated conditions were noticed in 49 ROBs. Essential repairs were carried out in 43 ROBs and six ROBs were closed, dismantled and their rebuilding is under progress, informed the ministry.

Simultaneously, dilapidated condition was noticed in 127 FOBs. Essential repairs were carried out in 95 FOBs and 32 FOBs were closed & dismantled for replacement. Rebuilding work has been completed in 20 FOBs and 12 FOBs are in progress.

Out of the total identified 1,107 bridges/ROBs/FOBs, the third-party audit of 815 bridges/ROBs/FOBs has been completed and balance works are in progress. To make the entire system transparent, boards have been provided at all ROBs and FOBs. In respect of railway bridges, boards have been provided at the stations (for next block section in increasing km) at suitable locations on main platform.

( With inputs from ANI )