VISAKHAPATNAM: With the ongoing construction of 20-foot wide and 205-foot-long Foot over Bridge (FoB) at Vizianagaram railway station, the Waltair division in East Coast Railway will be first ever division in Indian Railways to complete the project in record time of 90 days.
Even the FoB at Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai by the Army comes second. With four CCTV cameras, the works are monitored by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) M S Mathur and the agents are given rewards for early completion of the works. The Vizianagaram railway station with a passenger footfall of 2,000 and 150 passenger trains passing through it daily has one FoB towards Palasa side connecting all platforms. The second FoB, under construction at a cost of Rs 2.95 crore, will be connecting all the platforms and circulating area. Keeping the 90-day timeline for the FoB, the officials have set up a workshop which will work for 16-20 hours a day.
The project, started on Dec 24, 2018, was divided into various stages and set to be completed on March 23. “It is not just the division of works, we have given incentives and collect penalty from the contractor depending on the completion. Delay in every stage of works will invite penalty and if it is completed on time, they will get 4 per cent of the contract agreement value as incentive,” said M S Mathur.