B D Malbarna
This has reference to the news item “High Court concerns over faulty Rail line” in which it was written that Delhi High Court Bench of Justices B.D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva observed that even though an expert committee headed by ex DMRC Chief E. Sreedharan had raised serious concerns over the existing alignment of this section, why was the railway not thinking about it. It is worried about the safety of the citizens if Nepal like Earthquake happened. Hon’ble High Court further added that Govt. And Railway Board want to gamble with the life of people, then we cannot help you.” For the information of Hon’ble High Court and common people of India, except Chenab Bridge site, all other tunnels and bridges sites have been changed / modified.
According to Chief Engineer A.K Verma’s Presentation report, 95 kms alignment out of about 126km has been changed. So far Chenab bridge site is concerned, it is the best site for any high bridge or dam between Salal dam and Ramban area. So far as Geological problems are concerned there are no major problems as projected by Alok Verma. If two major salal dams built in 1987 on the same rock types stand till date without any problems then why the bridge can not stand.
So for Justices, apprehension regarding Earthquake, Jammu-Quazikund area falls under zone-IV in Seismic map of India but for design purposes, It has been taken in zone -V. So there is no threat of any earthquake to this bridge or other structures and various dams in the area. Since design engineers have considered all aspects in view while preparing design, as such there is no gambling on part of Govt. or Railway Board with the life of the people.
I have great regards for E Sreedharan but his so called expert team did not include any expert from Geological side who has main role among other experts in hilly area. Without any expert Geologist, Engineers cannot decide the feasibility of any project in hilly area. Moreover, expert team did not get any time to pay even one visit at site before giving their reports to the railway board. E Sreedharan is a excellent Manager and did great work along 760 km long Konkan Railway Line which was completed within 7 years and 3 months, but he cannot be expert in geological work.
I visited Konkan Railway line for four times and a number of geological problems were noticed and due to which many times Railway line had to be closed for heavy repairs or to remove heavy slided muck. Post construction problems are still going on.
In the last I may introduce myself that besides attending hydel projects, roads and irrigation projects, in the Jammu region, I am associated with Jammu-Udhampur Katra-Quazikund Project since 1981 as a Engineering Geologist from Geological Survey of India. After my retirement as a Director from GSI, I joined in KRCL as Advisor Geology in Oct, 2003. Since construction work of USBRL Project was taken up without geotechnical investigations as such many geotechnical problems were anticipated during reconnaissance survey by various teams of NR, KRCL, RITES, GSI etc. But somehow NR including A.K Verma, then Chief Engineer Posted in NR at that time did not agree to change or modify the alignment. After joining the KRCL, the first work I did was to prepare geological map and report of tunnels 1 &2 which were aligned within major Thrust Zone called Main Boundary Fault (MBF), strongly recommending shift/modify the alignment of tunnels 1 & 2.
KRCL submitted that report to NR during monthly meeting that used to be held at Delhi but some – how, NR did not agree. Had these two tunnels been modified at that time, USBRL project would have been completed in the year 2012 itself.
Now lakhs of workers, including Engineers, Mechanics and labourers from all over India, are engaged in various companies for this major Railway project, will it be ideal if work is closed. In hilly area, people don’t have much cultivated land and whatever they have ,They gave it to Railway work, or wasted due to many changes done after 2009 when first expert committee submitted the report. Moreover what would be the fate of local people who are dreaming for travelling by train over the world’s highest Railway Bridge from their houses, to their relative houses when train will go directly from Katra to Banihal.
(The author is Retd Director GSI)
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