Western Railway (WR) will undertake a special underwater study to examine whether the sand mining has impacted the structural integrity of the bridges over Vaitarna
Trains plying on the bridges over Vaitarna river are forced to slow down because of fears of derailment. File pic
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While the new Talgo train has already set a new speed record when it roared from Delhi to Mumbai in 12 hours flat, it might have made even better time had it not been for the Vaitarna bridge, where it was forced to slow down to a third of its maximum speed of 150 kmph. This slow speed was necessary, because officials are no longer sure of how strong the bridge is, due to rampant sand mining in the Vaitarna river basin.
Now, Western Railway (WR) will undertake a special underwater study to examine whether the sand mining has impacted the structural integrity of the bridges over Vaitarna. This is to ensure there is no repeat of the Mahad disaster, when several people died after an old bridge collapsed over the Savitri river last month.
mid-day had last year reported how the railway officials were worried that the structural integrity of the bridges might have been compromised by illegal dredging activity carried out at Vaitarna river by the sand mafia (‘Sand mining could cause derailment in Mumbai’, August 7, 2015).
Crucial bridges
There are two bridges in particular, on which both suburban and long-distance trains ply on the Virar-Dahanu rail route. The bridges — categorised as bridge number 92 and 93 — are like the neck of this rail route. Any damage to these bridges could paralyse a large part of the line on which crucial trains operate, like the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani, August Kranti Express and Shatabdi trains, as well as inter-state trains to Gujarat, MP and other northern states.
Speed breaker
“The pillars of these bridges are submerged and we need to determine their health. We have already implemented speed restrictions, wherein trains can’t go beyond the speed of 30 kmph,” said a WR official. In fact, during heavy rains earlier, the soil along the tracks had begun to collapse, and the authorities were forced to restrict the speed to 10 kmph.
Since then, officials have been even more concerned about the structural integrity of the bridges, and decided to undertake the underwater study. “Divers will go underwater and click high-resolution pictures of these pillars submerged in the river. Using the pictures, we will gauge the health of the bridges,” said Ravindra Bhakar, chief PRO, WR. Two more rail bridges under the Vadodara division will also be inspected at an overall cost of Rs 22 lakh.
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