Railways forms panel after CRS flags ‘lapses’ in new Pamban bridge

While the Rail safety auditor CRS gave nod for the movement of trains on the bridge with conditions, it came down heavily on the railways and said that the present bridge sets a bad example, with “glaring lapses” right from planning stage to its execution.

“This new important bridge has been constructed to replace the existing bridge opened in the year 1914, which has a double-leaf bascule section with a Scherzer rolling type lift span that can be raised the let ships pass. While the construction of the previous bridge more than 100 years ago is technical marvel considering much lesser availability of technology back in those days and considering the corrosive environment that it has withstood, I am constrained to point out that, in stark contrast, the present bridge sets a bad example of constructing an important structure, what with glaring lapses right from planning stage to its execution,” said AM Chowdhary, CRS, Southern Circle, in its report dated November 26, 2024.

The Pamban Bridge is 2.05 km long bridge with a unique 72 m Vertical Lift span, one of its kind in the country. CRS flagged multiple violations for not following standard design of RDSO, a railways body. “The lift span girder was non-RDSO standard and designed using foreign codes which entailed association of RDSO in the project. However, from the persual of records, it is evident that, with the support of Railway Board, RDSO shunned its responsibility in the design of the girder,” the report said.

“It is confirmed that the bridge has been constructed with state of Art design and the best construction practices. It is cleared for operation by Commissioner of Railway Safety. Further points raised by CRS will be complied in total,” said the Ministry.

“For planning of such important bridges, there is a standard practice of formation of a Technical Advisory Group (TAG). However, as a fallout of the decision taken to dissociate RDSO from the project, this was also not done in the case of Pamban bridge. It was unfortunate that Railway Board had been flouting its own gudlines,” said the CRS, whoes approval is required before the operation of any new railway lines.

The safety auditor also said that the dissociation of RDSO with the project resulted in serious consequences and has resulted in 36% reduction in the stress carrying capacity.

“The Fabrication Inspection Unit (FIU) of Southern Railway could not spervise and could not test check 20% test-checks. FIU has done tests of the welds done in the workshop and deliberately avoided the field-welds,” reads the report further.

It also said that the adequate measures have not been taken to address the issue of corrosion even when the bridge is stated to be in the second-worst corrosive environment in the world. The components of the bridge have already started corroding.

Ministry of Railways said that the design the bridge has been done by a TYPSA, an International Consultant. “The bridge is designed with European and Indian Codes. Its design was proof checked by IIT, Chennai. Being designed by Foreign Consultant, Railway Board envisaged technical limitation in examination of design by Railways and RDSO. Railway Board decided on additional proof check of design by IIT, Mumbai. After double proof check, the design of Bridge has been approved by Southern Railway. So, the bridge has been constructed based on design by a reputed International Consultant duly proof checked by two most premier Institutes of the country,” said the Ministry.

Ministry said that for corrosion protection, special painting scheme used in extreme corrosion prone areas in the world using polysiloxane paint with a design life of 35 years, has been implemented.