Bengaluru: Okalipuram signal-free corridor gets third railway underbridge

Authorities on Wednesday installed an RCC box in Okalipuram to build the third railway underbridge as part of the signal-free corridor project near Bengaluru’s busiest railway station.

Between 11 pm on Tuesday and 5.30 am on Wednesday, the South Western Railway (SWR) blocked the power supply and train traffic on line 3 to replace the old 9.15-metre girder with a 20.5-metre steel girder. The girder helped push an 11-metre RCC box at railway underbridge number 867.

The task was made possible by 100 workers and a 350-tonne road crane. Chennai Mail was the last train to pass through line 3 on Tuesday night before train traffic was blocked for nearly seven hours.

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Given the complex task, the railways used three tower cars to lower overhead equipment (OHE) on line number 4 and slew the OHE on line number 3. Signalling and Telecommunications (S&T) cables were diverted. Railway authorities worked in tandem with Bescom and the KPTCL to achieve the task, an official said.

The task was commissioned and funded by the BBMP, which is building the one-kilometre network of flyovers and underpasses to skirt the two railway lines that emerge out of KSR Bengaluru.

The railway underbridges are being constructed by the SWR, which will soon install the fourth and final RCC box.

The Okalipuram corridor project has been under construction for nearly a decade and has missed multiple deadlines.

While the railways built the first two underbridges in Okalipuram in 2018-19, work on the remaining two was held up for various reasons.

Once all four underbridges open, vehicular movement will ease from Rajajinagar towards Majestic and Vidhana Soudha, said Kusuma Hariprasad, Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Administration), Bengaluru, SWR.

In addition, the girder insertion will help in the ongoing yard remodelling at the KSR Bengaluru railway station. This will ease the movement of goods trains towards Mysuru and Yeshwantpur, she stated. Goods trains won’t have to wait at the outer signal to enter KSR Bengaluru. They can skip the station and head to their destination. “There will be better crossovers,” she told DH.

To a question, she said the yard remodelling at KSR Bengaluru would be completed by December.

The BBMP is working to improve approach roads to the underbridges and the second entrance to KSR Bengaluru, according to officials.