Indian Railways commissions longest 670 metre bridge over Bhima River

South Western Railway on Thursday, July 30, commissioned longest bridge on Bhima River that connects Karnataka with Maharashtra through Bijapur and Solapur districts. Lachyan-Hotgi section is 33 km long and is a part of doubling project from Hotgi-Kudgi-Gag (284 km) which was sanctioned by Railway Board in 2014-15 at an anticipated cost of Rs.1870 crore.

track passes through 670 metre long important bridge over River Bhima, comprising 14 spans of 45.7 metre each. bridge is designed to fit for 25T axle loing. Presently  speed restrictions are imposed on existing bridge as it is t capable of carrying higher axle los, SWR said in a statement.

Engineering Marvel

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal lauded commissioning of longest bridge in South Western zone on Bhima river and termed it as an 'Engineering Marvel'. Taking to twitter Goyal wrote "Railways commissions longest bridge in South Western Zone on Bhima river. Rey with doubling, bridge is a part of route between Lachyan in Karnataka and Hotgi in Maharashtra."

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Railway completes 200 projects amid COVID-19 lockdown

Indian Railways cleared a heavy backlog of 200 projects of critical importance in key sections amid lockdown period put in place to curb COVID-19 infection. Indian Railways h suspended passenger train services on March 25 and this period gave railways chance to complete pending maintenance works, including yard remodeling, repair and re-girding of old bridges, doubling, and electrification of rails and renewal of scissor crossovers.

According to release by Railway Ministry, se projects were pending for several years and often presented as bottlenecks.  maintenance works also required a long stopp of traffic. Such projects were taken up during lockdown, considering it once in a lifetime opportunity to execute m without affecting train service, Ministry said in its statement.

Railway works included rebuilding of 82 bridges, construction or strengning of 16-foot overbridges, building 48 limited height ro under bridges to replace level crossing gates, dismantling of 14 old foot overbridges (FOBs), 5-yard remodeling, commissioning of doubling of one project, launching of 7 ro overbridges, and 26 or projects.

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