There was shortfall in achieving the annual target of upgradation and revival work on old rail bridges during 2011-12, said Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in an answer to a question.
In 2011-12, 967 bridges were targeted for repair work out of which 924 could be completed.
Bansal said the shortfall occurred as the work on bridges got delayed due to complexities involved in their execution, difficulties in availability of adequate traffic blocks, adverse weather conditions and contractual matters.
Rehabilitation of bridges is a continuous process in Indian Railways and during the current year, 702 bridges have been targeted for rehabiliation out of which 448 bridges have been completed upto October 2012.
As on April 1, 2012, there are 33,395 rail bridges on which are more than 100-years-old. Out of these, nine bridges have been declared as distressed bridges.
A regular and rigorous system of inspection of bridges is followed by the railways. Under this system, all the rail bridges are thoroughly inspected once a year by designated officials.
In addition to this, the railways maintain that special inspection of distressed bridges at reduced periodicity is carried out.
