Railways builds bridge on Barak river for Jiribam-Imphal project

Indian Railways has constructed a bridge on the Barak river in Manipur, as a part of its Jiribam-Imphal New Railway Line project. According to the Ministry of Railways, the Barak river, which is the largest river in Manipur's northeast, has been crossed by bridge number 53 in the Jiribam–Imphal New Rail Line Project. The newly built bridge is in a difficult location, with the tallest piers reaching up to 75 m in height (higher than the world-famous Qutub Minar in Delhi). In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha last September, former Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal informed that the 110.62 km long Jiribam–Imphal New Rail Line was included in the 2003-04 Budget. The latest estimated cost of this new rail line project, according to the ministry, is Rs 12,264 crore. A total of Rs 10,089 crore was spent up to March 2020, with an additional Rs 800 crore set aside for the fiscal year 2020-21. Goyal told the media that the completion of any railway project is contingent on several factors, including the area's geological and topographical conditions, statutory clearances from various authorities, number of working months due to climatic conditions, the state government's speedy land acquisition process, forest clearance by forest department officials, the relocation of infringing utilities, the law and order situation in the project site area, among others. In the hilly terrain of the Himalayas, the Indian Railways Jiribam-Imphal new line project is a challenging project with 47 tunnels, 156 bridges, including a 141 m high pier bridge, among other features. Image SourceAlso read: World’s tallest railway bridge by Indian Railways