Come November and people in Kochi can take pride in their city having the longest railway bridge in the country, cutting across an island over the Vembanad lake.
Come November and people in Kochi can take pride in their city having the longest railway bridge in the country, cutting across an island over the Vembanad lake.
The 4.62 km-long Vallarpadam bridge will beat the current record for the longest rail bridge held by the Nehru Setu Bridge near Dehri on river Sone in Bihar by more than a kilometre.
"It will be the longest bridge built in the shortest possible time of 18 months," G Kesava Chandran, deputy general manager, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL), which is executing the works, said.
The basic idea behind building this huge elevated structure, being completely funded by the Centre, was to reduce land acquisition at nearby Vaduthala, which is a very thickly populated area, he said.
The bridge is part of the nearly nine km railway link being built for Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT).
The total cost of the Rail link for the Vallarpadam project, including the railway station and goods yard at Edappally near here was Rs 245.67 crore, but had shot up to Rs 297.10 crore due to escalation of steel prices, he said.
Chandran said 11,000 tonnes of ordinary steel, 3,000 tonnes of high tensile steel and 36,000 tonnes of cement have so far been consumed to build the 133 span bridge, which will have 133 pillars. These pillars are built on piles sunk to depths ranging between 45 to 55 metres, he said.
"We are also laying the foundation for double track and expecting a huge increase in traffic once the ICTT becomes operational," Chandran said.
RVNL is a public sector unit under the railway ministry, created to implement large projects like the present one, he said.
Just as ambitious a project as the railway bridge is the Vallarpadam transhipment terminal project that is expected to handle three million TEUs of containerised cargo a year once commissioned.
The terminal will be run by India Gateway Terminal Ltd, part of Dubai Ports World.
A total of Rs 3,000 crore, spread over two phases, will be invested in the project, which will have a capacity to receive vessels upto 8,000 TEUs.
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