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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways revealed that nearly one of the four railway bridges in the country is either a century old or older which needs an upgrade citing the pressure on Indian railways.
The increase in the number of pressures and plus the new heavier and faster trains put pressure on these old structures and unless the bridges are upgraded, the passengers are at risk. Out of a total of 1, 47, 523 bridges across India, a total of 37,689 are either a century old or even older. News18 did the story.
A PSC was chaired by TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and the report ‘Standing Committee on Railways on Maintenance of Bridges in Indian Railways: A Review,’ found out series of problems that have marred one of the world’s biggest railway network. The findings range from how the ministry of Railways classifies the bridges, to inspection methods, to staff shortage and the fund that lie unspent.
But the PSC noticed that the bridges aren’t classified separately. “Rather they are kept at par with the existing newer/modern bridges when it comes to inspections and maintenance,” the report tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday said.
The PSC also pulled up the ministry for staff shortage to maintain these bridges. “The Committee found high rates of vacancy in the staff dedicated for inspection and maintenance of bridges. As against a sanctioned strength of 7,669, the actual strength is only 4,517 (around 40 per cent). It is of the opinion that since bridges are the most vulnerable link on the railways, lack of manpower in this segment is bound to create gaps in inspection and maintenance which may compromise railway safety,” it said.
