Nagpur: The new railway overbridge (ROB) at Khapri, parallel to the existing one, will be ready by the first week of February. It is expected to prevent traffic jams on the old ROB during morning and evening hours when people travel between Nagpur and Butibori.
Abhijit Jichkar, project director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said that the curing period of the structure would be completed on January 18. “After that we will lay a layer of bituminous concrete, followed by masting (a type of asphalting). A load test will be performed and if it is successful the structure will be ready for traffic,” he told TOI.
The 1.1km long ROB will cost Rs50 crore. The work had begun in April 2017 and was slated to be complete in March 2019. It has been delayed by about two years due to various reasons.
Work of the ROB was complete over two months ago, except for the portion above the railway line. Central Railway head office in Mumbai asked NHAI to change the design for this portion. NHAI asked Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) to prepare a new design. Work began on the stalled portion earlier this month after CR approved VNIT’s design.
In 2020, work on the project was hit as NHAI had difficulty in meeting simultaneous requirements of CR and Airports Authority of India (AAI). The ROB site is near the Nagpur airport and permission was required from AAI to launch the girders. AAI provided a time slot between 1.30pm and 3.30pm when CR found it difficult to stop trains.
Its initial launch scheme was rejected by commissioner of railway safety (CRS) and hence a new scheme was initiated wherein the girders were split to lower the weight. NHAI split the 55 metre long girder into two having lengths of 33 mt and 22 mt.