LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) has decided to stop repair and rehabilitation of 28 bridges declared dangerous for rail operations in a survey conducted nine years ago.

A total of 159 bridges were identified ‘in acute distress, requiring repair and maintenance on an emergent basis’ in the comprehensive survey, carried out by a team headed by the then federal government inspector of railways after collapse of a bridge between Ran Pathani and Dhabeji stations on July 30, 2006, cutting off rail link of Sindh capital from the rest of the country for six days or so, a source in the PR at its headquarters in Lahore told Dawn on Wednesday.

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) in its meeting on Nov 3, 2007, had granted approval to the Rs412 million PC-1 submitted by the Ministry of Railways for its Bridge Rehabilitation Project.

After release of funds, work on the project was started in April 2008. However, only 95 bridges could be made fit for rail operations to-date, around 25 bridges were excluded from the project while ongoing work on six others would be stopped by June 30 this year, said the source.

“Some of the 28 bridges declared dangerous in the FGIR survey’s 159 structures ‘in acute distress, requiring repair and maintenance on an emergent basis’ are numbered 4, 10, 26, 100, 143, 170, 234, 257, 291, 433, 436 and 437,” said the source.

Most of the 13,841 bridges on the PR network had been constructed during 1886 and 1900. The railways estate code, the source said, determined the maximum age of a bridge having masonry substructure at 100 years and that of steel at 60 years.

“At least 86 per cent of the total PR bridges are 100 to 145 years old and have outlived their utility. Only 115 bridges are less than 40 years old. A total of 640 bridges are 60 to 80 years old, 1,243 are 80 to 100 years old, 1,352 are 100 to 120 years old, 2,911 are 120 to 140 years, 7,580 are more than 140 years old,” said the source.

Railways Additional General Manager (Infrastructure) Humayun Rashid said that technical reasons hampered the completion of the project within its stipulated period of three years.

All these bridges would be repaired and rehabilitated under the Main Line I and II upgrade plans under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor Project for Pakistan Railways, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2016