Is it really, the mega Chenab arch bridge and the Kashmir Rail Link will be marvels of engineering?

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The entire undertaking will be a monument to arrogance, incompetence and mendacity of Railway Board and the railway engineers

Alok Kumar Verma*

They have been claiming for the past 20 years that the mega arch bridge over Chenab and the Kashmir Rail Link will be marvels of engineering.

In fact, the entire undertaking will be a monument to arrogance, incompetence and mendacity of Railway Board and the railway engineers.

Read the 2010 judgment in the link wherein Delhi High Court concluded that in 2009, review of Railway Board’s plan to build this line in the landslide-prone Himalayas on an alignment with flat gradient was scuttled by two members of Railway Board, who acted in self-interest and abused power.

Four years later, another bench of the High Court ordered formation of another expert committee to review the plan.

The Sreedharan Committee emphatically said that the alignment based on one in 100 gradient should be abandoned and the alignment with matters and nobody else.

Barely, 50% work has been done so far in 18 years since start of the project in 2002, yet promises of early completion are made again and again.

“Having learnt the lessons in hard way on this project, Railway Board shall not let the same mistake again”.

But the contrary fact is that between 2008-12, Railway Board had approved the same flawed alignment for six other projects in Himalayas, five in the North East and one in Uttarakhand..

After the High Court judgment of 2010, came scathing indictments of Railway Board’s working from CAG in 2012 and PAC in 2014. Before the High Court in 2015, Railway Board sought to deflect responsiblity for its Himalayan fiasco on to the Government.

Railway’s July’15 affidavit said “much of the problems that arose initially on the Project were as a consequence of incomplete and inadequate investigations and surveys as they were sudden directions from the Government to complete the project in 5 years”.

So, what will be the outcome of building these seven lines in Himalayas on flat gradient of 1 in 100?

  1. Extremely high cost of const: INR 1.5 to 2 lakh crore on current rupee value on total 650 km.

  2. Very low line capacity.

  3. Highly vulnerable to landslides, earthquakes, and security risks.

  4. High safety risks and long line closures due to above hazards.

  5. Very high recurring expenditure on security paraphernalia and operations and maintenance of the line.

  6. Problematic rescue and relief due to long highly curved tunnels and very high bridges in a remote high-relief mountainous region.

  7. From project to project 5 to 20 more years to complete construction.

*A. K. Verma, IRSE is a Retired Chief Engineer from Northern Railway.

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