At present, the camber measurement of bridges such as the old Yamuna Bridge is done manually, with the Engineering Department personnel having to walk on it with various measurement instruments and scales.
The iconic old Yamuna Bridge of the Northern Railways (NR) is all set to become the country’s first railway bridge to have its camber tested electronically with the help of laser.
Camber is a technical term for the upward deflection in girders of a bridge due to the stress exerted by traffic or trains moving on them. Confirming the development, NR Chief Spokesperson Neeraj Sharma said the contract to install the system, called the Intelligent Camber Measurement System, will be given in some time. The Expressions of Interest have already been called, he said.
The old Yamuna Bridge was chosen as it fulfilled all the qualities the railways was looking for in this pilot project, a senior engineer from the NR’s Bridge Department told DNA. “It is old, carries a lot of traffic, is made of steel and is right within the limits of Delhi, making it easier to inspect. The project is being monitored at the divisional level, zonal level as well at the Railway Board. The offices of all these three set-ups are in Delhi,” he explained.
At present, the camber measurement of bridges such as the old Yamuna Bridge is done manually, with the Engineering Department personnel having to walk on it with various measurement instruments and scales.
“The disadvantage is that the measurements cannot be done in real time, that is when a train is passing on the bridge. With the Intelligent Camber Measurement System, however, real-time measurement of deflections on a bridge due to the forces exerted by a passing train can be recorded,” the official said. The officials are seeing the development as the railways’ slow but inevitable move towards the use of technology in matters concerning safety.
On its edit page on November 22, in a ‘by invitation edit piece’ by Subodh Jain, Former Member (Engineering) Railway Board, DNA had highlighted the issue of over-dependence on humans for safety checking.
Writing for DNA, Jain had stated: “The most striking feature of the Indian Railways is that no country operates such a massive system with so much technological backwardness. We are adding more trains year after year, more passengers are being carried from one place to another. The technological base of the system, however, remains the same as it was for the last several decades. Look at the way track fractures are checked even today by a single person walking in the wilderness in the cold night, with tools that have remained the same for years now.”
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