hrough a planned block from January 26 to February 21, the Eastern Railway (ER)’s Howrah division successfully dismantled the century-old Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Burdwan.
The Howrah Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Manish Jain, had earlier said that train operations could be dangerous as the new design of rakes was being rolled at increased heights, whereas the bridge was of a lower height. Thus a block that resulted in the cancellation of trains was deemed necessary by the division. The replacement of this bridge has already been provided by a new cable-stayed ROB commissioned in 2019.
The old ROB was a two-lane bridge, built between 1900 and 1901. The bridge was extremely old and deemed unsafe by the authorities. Almost every week, the overhead equipment had to be switched off so that rakes would be moved using another engine, resulting in the delay of trains and affecting the services of suburban trains. According to the ER, the tracks had less room because of the smaller spans.