Alipurduar (West Bengal): Railways rely on bridges to carry trains across rivers. There are countless such bridges across rivers worldwide. Some are new, and some are old. The condition of these bridges is monitored throughout the year, and maintenance work is carried out as needed.
Indian Railways is no exception. Railway engineers maintain the bridges throughout the year. However, this maintenance is primarily focused on the parts of the bridge above the water. Railway officials have now taken steps to assess the condition of the underwater parts of the bridges. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has initiated a project to simplify this task.
They have decided that this time, the underwater sections of the bridges will be inspected with the help of technology. Underwater robot drones will be used for this purpose. The work has already begun. Devendra Singh, DRM of the Alipurduar Division of Northeast Frontier Railway, said that the parts of the bridge that are not visible from the outside are being monitored using robots. The robots are taking pictures of the underwater sections of the bridges. These images will then be examined, and necessary steps will be taken.
The Northeast Frontier Railway is responsible for railway operations in parts of Northeast India, including West Bengal. Besides major rivers like the Teesta and Brahmaputra, there are many other smaller rivers. There are a total of 34 bridges. One of them is the Saraighat Bridge over the Brahmaputra in Assam. 18 of these bridges are in the Alipurduar Division. In total, there are approximately 4200 km of railway line on these bridges.
Railway engineers regularly inspect these bridges. Monitoring is done when the water level in the rivers is low. However, some rivers have deep water throughout the year. It is not possible to monitor the underwater parts of the bridges on these rivers using conventional methods. However, monitoring these sections of the bridge is crucial for passenger safety. Therefore, an initiative has been launched to monitor the bridges using robots, as stated by Northeast Frontier Railway.
They explained that this underwater robot drone is used to inspect each bridge. It provides comprehensive data through thermal imaging, ground-penetrating radar, and ultrasonic pulse velocity. No defects have been found so far. Although no defects have been detected yet, they could appear in the future. Therefore, Northeast Frontier Railway stated that regular monitoring will be conducted using this robot drone.
