Monday 13 February 2012 Government 2.0: The Road Ahead
Punjab to construct 140 railway bridges

The construction of 13 bridges is almost nearing completion and they will be operational by the end of this year

Chandigarh: The Punjab government has decided to construct as many as 140 railway over bridges and railway under bridges in a phased manner at various locations identified in the state.

Out of these, the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) has been entrusted the construction of 45 bridges in the first phase, involving an expenditure of Rs 910 crore.

“Any location which has a train vehicle unit of 100,000 or more per day qualifies for the construction of a railway over bridge. The cost of construction is shared by the state government with the Ministry of Railways. The contribution received from the Centre is, however, only 27 per cent of the awarded cost and the state’s share is being funded by the PIDB,” PIDB Managing Director Sukhbir Singh Sandhu said.

Approaches to railway over bridges are being constructed by the PWD and the railway portion is normally constructed by the Railways. However, in order to speed up the construction of the next set of bridges, we have signed a MoU with the Ministry of Railways that allows us to execute the entire construction. This is expected to reduce delays caused by coordination between the Punjab government and the Centre, he added.

“The construction of 13 bridges is almost nearing completion and they will be operational by the end of this year. Soon, the work is going to commence on another 18 at a cost of Rs 450 crore,” Sandhu added.

The bridges built on important locations and almost ready for operation include Jagraon bridge on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur railway line; Bathinda crossing on the Ambala-Bathinda railway line; Mansa crossing on the Delhi-Bathinda railway line; Beas crossing on the Jalandhar- Amritsar railway line; Morinda Bypass crossing on the Morinda- Chandigarh railway line; and Fatehgarh Sahib in Sirhind city on the Ludhiana-Delhi railway line.
—iGovernment Bureau

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