Crosses Ganges Design K-truss bridge No. of lanes 2 Total length 4,556 m Body of water Ganges Opened 3 February 2016 | Locale Digha–Sonpur No. of spans 36 No. of tracks 2 Width 10 m Bridge type Truss bridge Location Digha, Patna, Patna | |
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Address Digha, Patna, Bihar 800011 Similar Ganges, Mahatma Gandhi Setu, Rajendra Setu, Munger Ganga Bridge, Arrah–Chhapra Bridge | ||
The Digha–Sonpur rail–road bridge (Hindi: दीघा-सोनपुर रेल-सह-सड़क सेतु) or Ganga rail–road bridge (Hindi: गंगा रेल-सड़क सेतु) is a bridge across river Ganga, connecting Digha Ghat in Patna and Pahleja Ghat in Sonpur, Saran district in the Indian state of Bihar. The rail-cum-road bridge provides easy roadway and railway link between northern and southern parts of Bihar. It is a steel girder bridge. Regular scheduled passenger rail service was inaugurated on this route on 3 February 2016. This is second railway bridge in Bihar after Rajendra Setu that connects North Bihar to South Bihar. Indian railways has constructed two railway stations on either sides of the bridge – Patliputra Junction railway station (PPTA) and Bharpura PahlejaGhat railway station (PHLG).
Contents
The project
Rajendra Setu was the only bridge that carried railway tracks across the Ganges in the state of Bihar till 3 February 2016. It was opened in 1959.
On 22 December 1996, Former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone for the construction of the railway bridge over Ganga at Sonepur. Ram Vilas Paswan was the railway minister at that time, but the physical work on the bridge began in 2003 when Nitish Kumar was the railway minister. The Digha–Sonpur Ganga bridge was initially sanctioned as a rail bridge; the project was converted to a rail-cum-road bridge in 2006. Total cost of the project was put at ₹13,890 million, out of which ₹8,350 million was for the rail part, and ₹5,540 million was for the road part. It was expected to be completed in five years. The construction work on the bridge was completed in August 2015, and a trial run of a diesel locomotive was undertaken on the bridge in the same month.
Ganga rail–road bridge project was executed by Ircon International and the bridge was completed at ₹1,570 crore (US$230 million). The electrification work on the Patna-Sonepur-Hajipur Section was completed by July 2016. The doubling of railway tracks on the bridge will be done at an estimated cost of Rs 156.09 crore and will be completed by October 2018.
This bridge of 4,556 metres (14,948 ft) length is amongst the longest bridges in India. The total length of construction, including approaches, would be 20 km. It is a K-truss bridge. There will be two rail tracks (up and down tracks) and a four-lane road (two carriage ways in each direction).
Construction of the bridge being completed, the inaugural commercial run on the rail bridge took place on 3 February 2016. The Digha–Sonepur rail bridge was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 March 2016. The second rail track is still to be laid, and although the road on the bridge is complete, the approach roads on both ends are incomplete due to delay in land acquisition. Trains running on Ganga rail–road bridge between Sonepur and Patliputra are:
Politicking
In 1996, survey work for the proposed bridge was initiated by the Railways at three possible sites – Digha–Sonepur, Gulzarbagh–Hajipur and Ict Ghat–Sonepur. Ram Vilas Paswan was then the Union Railway Minister and he lent his support to the Gulzarbagh-Hajipur site, as Hajipur was the constituency from which he was elected. Lalu Prasad Yadav, then Chief Minister of Bihar, lent his support to the Digha–Sonepur site. In the wake of the conflicting support of the political heavy weights, disturbances broke out at Sonepur. One person was shot dead. Many experts opined in favour of building the rail bridge adjacent to the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, the road bridge connecting Hajipur with Patna. However, political opinion prevailed and the Digha–Sonepur site was selected. Rs. 24 million was spent on the survey alone. The proposal to construct the bridge was mentioned in the union budget of 1997-98 and at that time the estimated cost was Rs 600 crores. The bridge was finally sanctioned during the term as Union Railway Minister of Nitish Kumar, present Chief Minister of Bihar. The scope of work was expanded when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union Railway Minister.
Service
Regularly scheduled passenger service was inaugurated on this route on 3 February 2016. Initially, six services will utilize the bridge connecting Patna with North Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Diesel Multiple Unit trains from Patliputra Junction to Barauni Junction via Sonepur, Hajipur, Shahpur Patori, to Gorakhpur Junction via Chhapra, Siwan, Thawe and Kaptanganj, and to Gorakhpur Junction via Hajipur, Muzaffarpur, Raxaul and Narkatiaganj are among the initial services.
In the future, certain long-distance Patna-bound trains are expected to shift to this northerly route easing the burden on the heavily congested Mughalsarai-Patna rail line.
Roll-on/roll-off
In May 2016, Roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) service was introduced from Bihta (private freight terminal) to Turki station in Muzaffarpur district covering a distance of 88 km through the Digha–Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge. This is second such service in India. Before this, Railways started RoRo services in the Konkan region. The railway wagons ferry loaded trucks to their destination. This is started by Railways to attract more loadings, reduce carbon emission and reduce load on Mahatma Gandhi Setu. Approximately 44 loaded or empty trucks move in a rake and one rake do three trips a day. Ferrying of trucks weighing 15 MT (metric tonnes) cost ₹4,107 (US$61) and of empty trucks of average 6 MT (metric tonnes) weight ₹2,806 (US$42). Similarly, trucks weighing over 15 MT are charged Rs 200 more for every tonne over 15MT. The maximum weight allowed is 66 MT. From July 3 onwards, starting destination is changed to Danapur instead of Bihita.
Bridges across the Ganges in Bihar
The Ganges divides the state of Bihar in two parts. The mighty river makes communication between the two parts a difficult task.