Stating that the replacement of the century old Scherzer’s span in the Pamban Rail Bridge would take at least one year, Southern Railway General Manager R. K. Kulshreshtha has said the Railways were thinking of alternative arrangements, to install the new span without disrupting rail connectivity to Rameswaram island. Talking to reporters after inspecting the Rameswaram railway station and taking a look of the Pamban bridge on Friday, Mr. Kulshrestha said he could not specify the time schedule for the installation of the new span as the work would take one year and the Railways could not afford to stop train services to the island for that long. “We can even start the work today but all trains will stop for one year,” he said adding that was why they were thinking alternative arrangements, whether they could make an alternative bridge (in the middle portion) and connect it. Earlier, the Railways thought of replacing only the middle portion (Scherzer’s span) but now ‘we will replace little more’, he said. The Railways has awarded the contract to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and “we are discussing with them as we do not want to stop the trains for one year,” he reiterated. RVNL Executive Director Pradeep Guar, after an inspection in April, 2017, had said after finalising the tender process, the entire fabrication work would be done outside and the train affecting time on the bridge would be ‘as less as possible’ when the span was installed. “Now lot of developments are taking place,” a RVNL official said preferring anonymity when contacted but declined to give details. According to its website, the RVNL has invited tenders for construction ‘movable vertical lift steel bridge including substructure in lieu of existing Scherzer rolling lift span’ at a cost of ?45.49 crore. The tender closes by the end of August, it said. The RVNL had recently conducted an aerial photo survey of the bridge, using an unmanned aerial vehicle and assessed the strength of the bridge, by deploying Robotic Remote Operated Vehicle under the sea.

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