Intending to enhance safety and provide a seamless and jerk-free travel experience to local commuters, the Western Railway has decided to replace steel girders of all bridges and culverts in the Churchgate and Virar section specifically in the Mumbai suburban section as they fall under the coastal zone and need more maintenance.
"We have identified 293 bridges and major culverts between Churchgate and Virar, out of this, 150 bridges already have been equipped with concrete span (girders. The remaining will be covered in a phased manner by December 2023," said an officer of WR.
"Steel girders are prone to constant corrosion and deterioration due to the proximity to the sea and the humid weather. This reduces the life of such steel bridges. Thus to enhance safety, the steel girders have been replaced with PSC girders. The PSC girders will ensure durability and can withstand all kinds of weather, thereby ensuring safer and speedier train operations. This will also enhance the load-bearing capacity of the tracks" said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of WR.
Asked about the cost of concrete girders, an official said, "It's difficult to tell the cost of each girder because these are prepared in bulk as per need, but I can definitely say maintenance cost of concrete girders is much less than the traditional steel girders.
When asked about the timeline of this project, a WR official said, "We are targeting to complete the project (replacement of all existing steel girders of bridges by concrete girders) by December 2023."
"Working in Mumbai suburban section is not an easy job, especially during day time when trains are running with the headway of 4 to 5 minutes. For changing the girders we need a complete stop of train movement in particular sections, which need coordination with all departments of railway including operating departments".
"We are trying our best to complete the project with minimum disturbance in train operations. Most of the block will be done at night for the convenience of suburban commuters," said an officer of WR who is monitoring the project.
Recently WR has successfully completed regirdering work of its one major bridge located near Jogeshwari station. "The steel girders on the Slow line tracks and Harbour line tracks have been replaced with concrete girders by undertaking almost nine hours jumbo block during the intermittent night of 2/3 April 2022," said an officer of WR adding that steel girders on the fast line tracks of the bridge were replaced with concrete girders on 20th March 2022 by undertaking a seven hours jumbo block.
