New Delhi: The railways in India were introduced way back during the British colonial rule with some of its infrastructure still in use. So, for the railways to be built, the lines need to pass through some ways for which bridges need to be constructed. For the same reason, when the railways were being built in India, there were many bridges constructed to serve the routes passing through.

According to the government statistics, there are atleast 37,000 railway bridges, which are more than 100 years of age with almost 32 percent among them are located in the northern zone. The Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain gave a written reply in Lok Sabha and said that there are 37,162 railway bridges in the network which are about a century old.

“The age of a bridge does not have any direct relevance on the physical condition of the bridge. There is a well-established system of inspection of bridges of the Indian Railways,” he said.

“All these bridges are inspected twice a year, one before the onset of monsoon and one detailed inspection after monsoon. In addition, certain bridges are also inspected more frequently depending on their condition,” the minister said.

The zone for the Northern Railway has a total of 8,691 such bridges, followed by the Central zone with about 4,710 bridges, eastern zone with 3,119, south central zone with 3,040 and western zone with 2,858 bridges, he said.

The bridges are repaired as per the need and if there is time in getting the repairs done, then speed restrictions are imposed, the minister said.

In the last five years, a total of 3,675 bridges have been repaired or strengthened, the minister said. Mr Gohain said a total of 3,017 railway bridges have been sanctioned under the budget for repairs and rebuilding as on April 1, 2017.

In October 2017, the Railway Board had ordered a review of all railway bridges in the country that need repairs. The board had earlier sought details of the present condition of bridges and found that trains would pass on 252 dilapidated bridges in their usual speed, posing a safety hazard.

The railways have set three ratings for its bridges — overall rating number (ORN) 1, 2, and 3. Bridges with ORN-1 rating require immediate building or rehabilitation, ORN-2 are required to be rebuilt on a programmed basis while ORN-3 bridges need special repairs.

Indian railways are of moderate speed with a maximum speed of upto 160 / km. But due to some routes having such bridges in bad conditions compels the railway authorities to slow down the trains passing on it and this in turn slows down the train flow process leading to unscheduled arrivals and departures.

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