Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Dec 29: Legal hurdles and shortage of funds are refraining the Railway authorities to set a deadline for completion of the doubling of Jammu-Pathankot-Jalandhar track even as 90 percent of the task has been accomplished and construction work on three major bridges has also initiated after clearance of the court and subsequent calling of fresh tenders.
Completion of much delayed three major railway bridges on Ravi, Ujh and Basantar rivers is likely to take place more than two years provided no further brakes are put up by legal hurdles and shortage of funds, highly placed authoritative sources told the Excelsior.
Besides, sources added, work on a canal crossing and an overhead bridge on National Highway near Kunjwani are also likely to be finished by the time these three bridges are completed.
Pertinent to mention that work on Ujh bridge got delayed because of a court stay following some controversy over allotment of the tenders while the bridges on Ravi and Basantar were sanctioned during the process of doubling of the lane.
Rs 700 crore mega project of doubling of the Jammu-Pathankot-Jalandhar track was started around a decade ago under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction plan. The plan was conceived in 1997-98 and the work started in 2002. The work was started in different stretches and most of the challenges posed to engineering were overcome. The Northern Railway had earlier set a deadline of December 2011 for completion of doubling of the track, which is aimed at improving the rail services between Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Even as 90 percent of doubling of the track has been completed, small stretches of around six kilometer on Ravi, Ujh and Basantar rivers besides canal crossings are delaying its commissioning.
The upcoming bridge on Ravi river will have 17 spans of 45 meters while the Ujh and Basantar bridges will have 27 spans of 24 meters and 12 spans of 30 meters, respectively.
According to the sources, after accomplishment of the work on sub-structures, fabrication of the bridge structures will be taken up and the entire process is likely to take more than two years for completion. A lot of precautions have to be taken considering the length and weight of the bridge structures, which are erected on the sub-structure and spans. However, sources hastened to add, it is difficult to set a deadline for commissioning of the double track owing to no free flow of funds for the work as well as some legal hurdles by the contractors and other concerned parties. Further, the unprecedented delay is escalating cost of the project, which is again troublesome for the Railway authorities, sources explained.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel