New rail bridge beside ‘Loha Pul’ in Delhi to start operations this year

The nearly 1km bridge parallel to the old bridge has been built at a cost of ₹226.7 crore connecting old Delhi’s Yamuna Bazaar to east Delhi’s Shastri Park

Construction on the new Yamuna bridge parallel to the old bridge (Loha Pul) is finally complete and is set to be operational in the current financial year, officials in the Northern Railways said.

A view of the new Yamuna Bridge, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The nearly 1km bridge parallel to the old bridge has been built at a cost of ₹226.7 crore connecting old Delhi’s Yamuna Bazaar to east Delhi’s Shastri Park. The railway tracks on it are now being linked with the existing rail network in Delhi. Work on the bridge first began over two decades ago, but got interrupted multiple times.

“Work on the bridge is complete, including the foundation work, blanketing and earth work. Two RUBs (railway under bridges) have been completed at both ends and while track-linking work is complete towards the Delhi- Shahdara end, the work to link tracks towards the Old Delhi side of the bridge is ongoing. Once finished, a detailed inspection will be done by our team and then the CRS (Commission of Railway Safety) will accordingly be called for an inspection,” Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, Northern Railways CPRO, said.

The Loha Pul is a two-deck bridge with road traffic on the lower deck and trains on the upper deck. Speed restrictions on the old bridge is currently 30km/hr, due to the wear-and-tear. However, the new structure will have no such limitation and the rail traffic can see faster movement, officials said. The Northern Railways is planning to shift all rail traffic from the old Yamuna bridge to the new one, so the old bridge will only be used for road traffic.

“Eventually, all trains from the old bridge will be shifted to the new one. Once CRS clears the bridge, we will plan how to shift trains in a phased manner,” another official from the Northern Railways said.

The old bridge on the Delhi – Shahdara section was constructed in 1866-67, but with the structure gradually becoming old, it was decided in 1997 to commission a new bridge on the upstream side of the existing old bridge.

“Work started in the year 2003 and as per the proposed alignment of the bridge, its approach track was to pass through the premises of Salimgarh Fort (in Chandni Chowk) in order to connect with the existing railway tracks. To execute this work, a piece of land of around 1,000sqm was required to be acquired in the premises of Salimgarh Fort,” the official explained.

While the minister for tourism and culture along with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2004 agreed to the land transfer, the ASI withdrew its permission in 2007, saying dismantling of the fort wall could cause irreversible damage.

“Finally, in the year 2011, based on report submitted by Cultural Impact Assessment Committee appointed for this issue, it was decided to change the alignment to avoid the Salimgarh Fort and in 2012, ASI once again gave us a clearance. But by then, a well foundation was already in progress and nine of these foundations were completed. Owing to the new alignment being proposed, the original contract had to be suspended.” the official added.

Secondly, work was also frequently halted during the flooding period, when the Yamuna’s water level would swell up beyond the warning and danger levels of 204.5 and 205.33 metre, respectively.

The new bridge has been built using 6,900 metric tonne of steel and consists of 28 girders in total. Further, there are two railway under bridges on both sides of the Yamuna bank.