More than a year ago Bhopal’s notorious “90-degree” rail overbridge Came up, the red flags were already raised on its peculiar design, which is now under investigation, the Indian Express has learned. Indian Railways, it is learned, warned that the design would criticize passengers and “give a bad image of engineers”.
The 648-meter bridge in the Aishbagh region, which cost Rs 18 crore to construct, was meant to eliminate the long delay at the railway crossing and shorten the commute for about three lakh people daily. While one part was being built by the Public Works Department, the railway was handling the second part.
The Public Works Department has formed a four -member committee including two chief engineers and an executive engineer to assess the design, evaluate accountability and recommend corrective measures.
Documents accessed by the Indian Express shows that on April 4, 2024, a team of supervisors of Indian Railways inspected the site where the bridge was being built. At that time, the sub-structure of the bridge constructed by the railway was ready, and the “work on superstructure” continued.
Work on the approach parts of the bridge managed by PWD was also in progress.
At that time, Deputy Civil Engineer of West Central Railway Division, Sudhanshu Nagayach wrote to the Executive Engineer of the PWD of the Bridge Construction Division that “During the inspection, it is seen that it is seen that the connection of the Bridge and the approach (SIC) towards Barkhedi is not seen”.
Nagayach has written that the part of the bridge constructed by PWD and Railways is “almost right angles, which is neither fulfilling functional requirement nor safe for road users”.
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The letter states, “It will criticize the road between the road users and the public people and will also give a bad image of engineers in the public.”
Meanwhile, senior PWD officials convicted the Railways for lack of coordination. A senior official of the Bridge Engineering Department said, “They should finish the project and wait for a new design. They (Railways) just proceeded to build their Rob and left us to design the approach part.”
However, the Railways said that they had already told the PWD about the flaws of the design, but since no action was taken, they proceeded to construct their part of the bridge.
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