COVID-19 lockdown helped the Southern Railway complete a major portion of the limited use subway work near Valadi a few kilometres away from Tiruchi along the Tiruchi – Villupuram chord line section.
The massive work of inserting 12 huge precast reinforced cement concrete boxes in the subway dug beneath the double line stretch was accomplished in 10 hours recently through planning and perfect coordination among different railway departments at the work site.
As prohibitory orders was in place, the Tiruchi railway divisional authorities obtained due approval from the District Collector to execute the major works of inserting the cement concrete boxes one after the other beneath the railway lines. The subway is being constructed in lieu of the level crossing gate 235 near Valadi at a cost of around ₹ 2.5 crore.
A senior railway officer involved in the project told The Hindu that the huge work of inserting the precast concrete boxes commenced soon after the crack of dawn and was completed by 4 p.m. covering the up and down broad gauge railway lines. The absence of movement of passenger trains along the chord line stretch due to the current lockdown helped in better planning and faster execution to complete the work in 10 hours, the railway officer said.
The officer said the mega work was carried out deploying a couple of 150 tonne cranes, four excavators, equal number of tippers and a couple of water tanks. A couple of tower wagons were used by the railway traction department officials for slewing both railway lines.
Labourers engaged for carrying out the mega work were examined using thermal scanners at the project site prior to commencing the works.
Masks were provided to all labourers and railway officials during the working hours and hand sanitiser provided every hour to all at the site besides ensuring personal distancing, the officer further said.
A team of Railway Protection Force personnel and those from the local police were present at the project site to prevent unauthorised persons from gathering at the work spot.
Officials from the railway engineering, traction, signal and telecommunication were also involved in accomplishing the massive work.
Having completed the major work of inserting the concrete boxes, the next work of laying approach road on either sides of the subway would be taken up. The approach road on either side was to be laid to a length of 80 metre each. “We have planned to complete the remaining works by July”, the official further said.
The subway would be equipped with sensors to activate the electrical system to pump out water if it were to get stagnated in the subway. A backup system was also proposed to be put in place using diesel to pump out stagnant water in case of power failure, the official further said.