Railways' method of classifying bridges needs revaluation: Parliament panel

A Parliamentary standing committee on railways has expressed its reservations over the classification system of bridges and said the present method relegates 92 per cent of them to minor bridge category.

Railways classify bridges under three broad categories based on the breadth of the waterway on which those are built.

Bridges on a linear waterway of 300 meters are classified as important bridges and those on linear waterway of 18 meters are classified as major bridges. All others are classified as minor bridges.

"The committee feels that such a categorization is too broad and may lead to exclusion of large number of bridges...The committee express its reservations on the above-mentioned classification and recommend that the ministry should re-evaluate their classification of bridges in order to bring about some parity," it said.