Northeastern Railway (NER) has set a deadline of December 15,2024 to commission bridge number 111 over the river Ganga besides the doubling and route electrification of the 5.404-km Jhusi Prayagraj Rambag section.
Once this is done, the whole Varanasi-Prayagraj line will be fully doubled and electrified, a month ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj in January-February 2025. Banaras- Jhusi 111.37 -km section is already doubled and electrified.
Works on the 1828.8 metre ( 24*76.2 metres) long bridge (purple colour line on the map below) is on the verge of completion. Only one span is under construction. All girders of the double line bridge have been launched. 96 per cent of the formation works has been completed between Jhusi and Prayagraj.
The new double line bridge has been constructed just South of the old single line broad guage bridge ( which replaced the metre gauge Izat bridge post gauge conversion).
On touching the banks south of Daraganj, the line will re-join the original alignment using viaducts and skirt Daraganj from the South. That is, Daraganj station will cease to exist .
Saumya Mathur, General Manager NER did a motor trolley inspection of the bridge on October 16,2024.Further she also did a window trailing inspection of Banaras -Prayagraj Rambag section. She was accompanied by Vineet Kumar Srivastav DRM Varanasi, Vikas Chandra ED RVNL and other senior officials.
At Jhusi, she also inspected the status of works related to second entry gate, circulating passeneger waiting area, boundary wall, high mast lighting, temporary toilet facilities, and the approach road to the station. Further, she inspected the station building, foot over bridge and platform related works and the panel room.
She also received information on works at Jhusi related to MahaKumbh Mela 2025 such as ticket /reservation counters, food/water vending stalls, concrete benches, CCTV surveillance, crowd management measures and gave the requisite directions.
End of Part 3
