Rajahmundry: Curbs put on trains’ speed

Rajahmundry: Railway authorities have imposed speed limit on trains running on bowstring-girder bridge across Godavari river connecting Rajahmundry to Kovvur after finding out slight sinking of one of the pillars.

Normally, the trains are allowed to run on the bridge at a speed of 80 km per hour. However, following the development, the aut-horities regulated the speed limit to 20 km per hour. A team of officials from Lucknow based Research Design and Standards Organisation, Railway Board advisor N.K. Sinha and SCR DRM (Vijayawada) Ashok Kumar inspected the bridge here on Wednesday and took stock of the development. It may be mentioned that, the authorities suspended plying of the trains on the bridge for about 12 hours soon after culmination of Godavari Maha Pushkaralu.

Though the railway authorities are maintaining that there is only a technical snag pertaining to the hangar of one of the arches of the bridge, the issue seems to be serious.

Later, the DRM said that they were going to carry out repair works to the bridge at a cost of Rs 2 crores  and added that until that period, the trains would ply on the bridge at regulated speed. He also said that they were going to lay a second track on the same bridge at a cost of Rs 100 crores.