Almost a month after the Kosi waters flooded most of North Bihar, submerging a substantial portion of railway lines in the East Central Railways, India’s largest infrastructure company is yet to draw up a preliminary assessment of the damage.
Railway officials acknowledge this has been the most extensive damage to their lines. The impact of the Gujjar riots on the tracks in Rajasthan and Haryana were much more limited as it was confined to removal of fishplates and other vandalism.
In the Kosi floods, the lines that were submerged were the lifelines between the Gangetic plains and the North East. A number of passenger trains and freight trains use this corridor every day.
As per East Central Railway (ECR)estimates, 13 kilometers of rail track were totally submerged. Railway engineering standards estimate the cost of restoring a kilometer of track at Rs 3 crore. This would mean a cost of Rs 40 crore just for the repair of the lines.
Some of the other losses that have been estimated are for signalling and Telecommunications links. ?We have incurred a loss of Rs 45 lakh on account of damage to the signaling and telecommunications. Around Rs 1.3 crore will be required to restore them. The restoration work will begin as soon as the water recedes. It will take three months to restore telecom systems and one month to restore signaling,? said an official.
This would mean delay or diversion of trains along this critical route for this period. However this associated consequential loss has not been factored in by Rail Bhawan so far.
ECR GM Girish Bhatnagar has pegged the losses to the railway property, including wagons, rails, and other infrastructure at Rs 100 crore. But another senior railway official said these figures are preliminary.
?No official assessment has been done yet. As of now, we are busy in the relief and rehabilitation activities,” the official said. The divergence occurs as the railways do not have any integrated cell or unit to assess such damages.
Seven Valley Railways in the UK came out with the initial estimates at 2 million pounds within a month of the damages caused by floods in June last year. The railway, which attracts 250,000 visitors annually, was damaged at nine locations.Instead of such estimates there are sporadic pieces of information with the ECR. The traffic has halted due to floods on two sections. The 40-km stretch between Forbisganj and Raghopur and 25-km stretch between Madhepura and Banmankhi are lying idle. “Between Narpatganj and Lalitgram, 5 km track has been washed out. This stretch lies between Saharsa and Forbisganj.
There is a 20-metre breach near Pratapganj and Lalitgram. Also, 20 feet track has been washed away between Muraliganj and Budhma,” said the ECR official. A railway ministry official said there had been no losses to the rolling stocks. He, however, could not peg the losses to other rail infrastructure like tracks and railway stations, among others.