51,000 rail bridges over 100 years old!

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) Sounds incredible but the fact is that out of 1,27,000 railway bridges in the country, as many as 51,000 are more than 100 years old.

However, the government's contention is that the life of a railway bridge is based not on its age but on physical conditions as ascertained by inspections.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said Railways had a well laid down system of multi-tier inspection of bridges.

''Railways undertakes repair, rehabilitation/rebuilding of bridges on the basis of their physical condition as ascertained during their inspections and not on the basis of age,'' Mr Velu said.

Few bridges, which may show signs of deterioration of physical condition indicating need for rehabilitation are clasified as Distressed Bridges. ''These are, however, neither unsafe nor dilapidated bridges,'' he said.

In 2006-07, 167 bridges were repaired or rehabilitated involving an expenditure of Rs 261.20 crore from the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) while another 947 bridges were repaired from the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) at a cost of Rs 215.15 crore.

The minister said during 2007-08, the Railways had fixed a target of repairing and rehabilitating 190 bridges from SRSF (Rs 445.50 crore) and another 1254 bridges from DRF (Rs 157.10 crore).

In 2001-02, to clear the backlong of replacement of such identified railway bridges, 2370 bridges were sanctioned for repir and rehabilitation at a cost of Rs 1530 crore under SRSF.

UNI