Replacing British-era rail bridges may take 60 years

26% bridges are over 100-year old, 5% crossed 140 years

Breaking away from the tradition of having a separate railway budget may have been easy for the government, but replacing British-era railway bridges could take as long as 60 years.

According to estimates, of the 1,36,000 railway bridges in the country, 26 per cent or more than 35,000 are over 100 years old. Of these, 6,000 are 140 year-plus. Sources say as many as 1,15,000 kilometre tracks have also past their prime. 

Going by the current pace of replacing 600 bridges every year, it will take another 58-60 years for the railways to rebuild all the current bridges. The railway ministry under Suresh Prabhu is seeking for more Budget allocation and a dedicated Rs 1 lakh crore fund for safety requirement. A series of accidents in the last three months had cost nearly 190 lives, increasing the demand for more allocation of funds for safety and maintenance. The first tranche of Rs 20,000 crore of this safety fund is likely to be allocated in this Budget.

"We have speed restrictions for many of these over 100-year-old bridges. Since this government took charge, the pace of rehabilitation has increased. We are rehabilitating around 600 bridges in 2016-17 and the same number was covered in 2015-16 as well," said an official close to the development. Prabhu has laid a road map of investments worth Rs 8.56-lakh crore in the next five years, of which around Rs 1.27 lakh crore will be allotted towards safety. 

Railway officials are pinning hopes on the upcoming Union Budget for more funds for safety and replacing these age-old bridges.  "Once the Budget is passed, then only we will be able to sanction the number of bridge developments, renovation and rehabilitation for the next financial year. Some of these bridges can still have good lifetime. Bridge inspection at various levels are done to assess the condition of bridges and to take corrective remedial measures needed if any. ," he added.  

During the last year's rail budget, Prabhu had kept the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF), used for upkeep and replacement of crucial assets, including rail tracks, at Rs 3,200 crore, nearly 60 per cent down from the 2015-16 budgeted figure of Rs 7,900 crore and 42 per cent down from the revised estimate of Rs 5,500 crore. This has helped the ministry to manage a budgeted operating ratio of 92 for 2016-17.  

"The basic problem is that over the years, bridges became a least important part of safety calculus. Batting for populist measures like more trains and routes, politicians forgot the importance of such things. However, railway is managing the situation well, by reducing speed on all these old bridges," said Shanti Narain, former member (traffic), Railway Board.

In 2015, a CAG report had cited that proposals forwarded by zones were pruned down at board level and considered in the light of monetary caps imposed and constrained to that extent. When asked whether there is a need for additional funds for safety, Mohammed Jamshed, member (traffic) of Indian Railways said at a press conference, "We are never short of funds for safety. We have placed our request to finance ministry this time also."