Fatuha road overbridge may suffer setback

danapur: the railway road overbridge (rob) at fatuha, which is being built at a cost of rs 8.2 crore, including the expenditure on approach roads, in the parliamentary constituency of railway minister nitish kumar, is likely to suffer a setback following the detection of "technical snags" in the casting of bridge girders. the railways have, however, initiated no step to rectify the "fault".according to sources, the railways had awarded the contract for building the rob at fatuha to a reputed firm, ircon international ltd (iil), in 1998. its special design based on the latest technology was accepted by the railways. accordingly, construction work was started at fatuha under the supervision of the railways. the rob, which is being fully funded by the railways, is to be opened for the road traffic by the end of june 2002. keeping in view the length of the rob, particularly across the railway tracks on both south and north ends, at least seven girders of the length of 37 metres each are required. when the casting of the first girder weighing 72 tonnes was done at the site, a senior technical expert of the railways inspected the site. in course of the inspection, technical experts of the railways came to doubt that the girder had developed about 40 mm bend at the midpoint. the then chief engineer (construction) of the eastern railway, l n jha, reported the matter to the research, design and standard organisation (rdso), lucknow in february last year, but the rdso did not take any action on the plea that it was beyond its control. however, the work at the site remained suspended for about three months from february to april 2000, it is said. recently, the member (engineering) of the railway board, r n malhotra, inspected the site on july 12 last, where the work was restarted after the preliminary report which approved the quality of work at fatuha. eastern railway general manager i i m s rana also visited the site in the first week of the current month. the sources said as the casting work of six other girders was not stopped and the fault not rectified, the "bend" is apparent in other girders also due to the "wrong" casting process. an expert associated with the bridge construction told this correspondent that the bend of 40 mm in the girders may be insignificant now, but its effect will be visible in the long run. the railway minister also inspected the site at fatuha on august 12 last. it is, however, not known whether he is aware of the girders developing "bend" due to the "technical snag" in casting. when contacted, iil general manager r k bariar said the doubts about the fault in the girders' casting are baseless. it is all due to ignorance. though a team of technical experts from the bihar college of engineering, patna, conducted a `rebound hammer' test and found no shortcoming in the structure of the girders, the iil has sought a second opinion from a delhi-based reputed construction firm, arch, to dispel the doubts for ever, he maintained, adding that his firm would not compromise on the quality of the bridge work. bariar stressed that if any deficiency is found in the structure of girders, iil will cast them again at its own cost. whatever may be the fact, there is no denying that the quality of fatuha rob work has been questioned by a team of railway bridge experts.