Kolkata, July 6: Indian Railways has created a record by constructing a large subway under a four-line railway crossing. The subway is constructed by the Waltair Division of the East Coast Railway within a record time of four hours and 30 minutes. The Waltair Division is a significant division for the movement of natural resources from the eastern of the country to various consumption centres.  The Iron ore from NMDC in Chhattisgarh and coal from Talcher in Odisha are also transported through this division.

Generally, the time taken for constructing a limited height subway range in India varies between six to eight hours for two lines, while the Wailter Division built the subway within five hours for four lines with proper planning and mobilisation of resources. It is a part of the initiative undertaken by the Railways Ministry to eliminate manned and unmanned crossing gates.

Time-lapse video of the construction of the subway is released by the railways:

In 2017, the work to construct the subway was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 2.6 crore. In a press release Railways said, “With the thrust on safety and focus on elimination of level crossing gates, Waltair Division had planned elimination of a busy manned level crossing, gate number 484 between Kottavalsa and Pendurti stations on the Chennai-Kolkata main trunk route covering 38 metres over 4 mainline tracks.”

During the construction of the subway, all four lines were closed. Three hundred workers with the help of Heavy machinery constructed the subway.  The tracks were removed and the with the help of heavy cranes earthwork was done from both the sides. Twenty concrete boxes of size 4.65 m X 3.65 m X 1.5 m and 15 base slabs were inserted after the completion of the earthwork.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2018 11:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).