NFR Deploys Underwater Robotic Tech to Boost Bridge Safety

03 Dec 2025 CW Team

The Northeast Frontier Railway has expanded the use of Remotely Operated Robotic Vehicles (RORV) to carry out detailed underwater and structural inspections of major bridges across the region. Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, CPRO, Northeast Frontier Railway, said the latest assessment cycle covered critical structures including the 1.45-km Saraighat Bridge over the Brahmaputra and several key bridges under the Alipurduar (APDJ) Division.

“These bridges have substructures that remain submerged throughout the year, making underwater inspection essential for evaluating the condition of foundations, wells and piers,” Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, CPRO, Northeast Frontier Railway, said. The historic Saraighat Bridge—India’s first rail-cum-road bridge over the Brahmaputra—was examined using a mix of RORV surveys, LiDAR, thermal imaging, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) tests to map scour zones, stress points and deck components with precision.

In the APDJ Division, 18 major bridges underwent comprehensive checks, with robotic systems capturing high-resolution visuals of submerged piers, riverbeds and potential vulnerabilities. Across all structures inspected, no significant underwater defects were found.

During 2024–25, NFR completed underwater surveys of 13 bridges using RORV. In 2025–26, 34 additional bridges have already been inspected. Sharma said these insights significantly strengthen NFR’s structural health monitoring efforts and enable timely planning for preventive maintenance.

He added that adopting RORV, combined with advanced digital tools, represents a major leap in scientific bridge assessment. NFR will continue upgrading its inspection systems to ensure the safety and longevity of critical connectivity routes, particularly strategic structures such as the Saraighat Bridge and other key bridges across the Northeast.

News source: ANI

Real Estate

05 Dec 2025

RBI Rate Cut Boosts Confidence Across Housing Market

Industry Context and Market DynamicsThe real estate industry has welcomed the RBI’s rate cut as a timely boost to affordability and demand. With home prices having risen steadily across major markets, even a marginal reduction in interest rates meaningfully strengthens purchasing power, especially for first-time and mid-income buyers.Ashish Jerath, President – Sales & Marketing, Smartworld Developers, observes:“The RBI’s 25-basis-point cut, bringing the repo rate down to 5.25%, is a timely boost for the real estate sector. Lower interest rates reduce borrowing costs, enabling homeb..

BMC Resumes Rs 170 Billion Road Works, Targets 80 per cent By Jan 2026

Following the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in October, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has restarted work on 645 roads—covering 297.49 kilometres—under its large-scale concretisation programme. Data shows that more than 60 per cent of the resumed works are located in the western suburbs. Officials said the civic body aims to complete concretisation on 80 per cent of the roads where fresh work has begun by January 2026. Launched in 2022, the Rs 170 billion project seeks to concretise 700 kilometres of roads across Mumbai. All civil works were halted during the monsoon ..

India Pushes Digital Shift In Urban Land Mapping

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) under the Ministry of Rural Development has convened a National Symposium on NAKSHA – the National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations – to advance India’s transition to modern, technology-driven land mapping. Speaking at the inaugural session, Secretary Manoj Joshi underscored the urgent need to move revenue departments away from outdated, tape-based methods and rough hand-drawn sketches. He stressed that adopting latitude–longitude-based digital mapping and GIS-linked registration systems is essential for economic stabi..