Title - TWO-DAY PROJECT Weekend trains cancelled for bridge repair

A number of South Eastern Railway (SER) trains, including the Puri Duronto and Howrah-Bhubaneswar Jan Shatabdi Express, will remain cancelled between Friday and Sunday due to replacement of girders on a 116-year-old early steel bridge in the Jaleswar-Amarda Road section between Kharagpur and Bhubaneswar. SER has planned a 58-hour mega block in the Up line to replace three of the girders, each of which is 150feet long. Two more similar blocks will be taken at a later stage for completion of work.

    “After inspection, it was realized that the condition of the girders wouldn’t allow trains to move at speeds of over 20 kmph across the bridge. For nearly two-and-ahalf years now, mail and express trains have been losing four minutes while crossing this bridge. Once the girders

are replaced, trains will be able to move at a speed of 100kmph,” an SER spokesperson said.

    The other trains that will remain cancelled are the Visakhapatnam-Digha Weekly Express, Puri-Howrah Weekly Express, Howrah-Sri Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam Weekly Express, Shalimar-Secunderabad Weekly Express and Shalimar-Baripada Weekly Express. Several other trains will run along diverted routes and some like the Sri Jagannath Express and Dhauli Express will stop at all stations for the benefit of passengers.

    According to officials, a lot of planning has been done to ensure quick replacement of the girders. Nothing of this sort has been tried out earlier, they claimed. The block will start from 5am on Friday and continue till 3pm on Sunday.