Indian Railways has sanctioned Rs 133.2295 crore for a four-lane road over bridge on the Udhna Ukai Songadh section in south Gujarat. Measured against the structure it actually buys, that works out near Rs 159 crore per kilometre, and hardly any of it is pavement money.
Key facts
- Rs 133.2295 crore for a four-lane ROB replacing Level Crossing No. 53 at Km 62/2-4, Udhna Ukai Songadh section, Western Railway.
- The railway span is an Open Web Girder costed at Rs 91.60 crore, roughly 69 per cent of the sanction.
- Viaduct 311.58 m (Rs 19.98 crore); railway approach 524.32 m (Rs 10.25 crore). The crossing sits at a 62 per cent skew.
- Cost split near half: Rs 66.6147 crore Railways, Rs 66.6148 crore the state government.
What happened
The sanction went out on 19 September, carried by the ANI wire, with DeshGujarat and Indian Masterminds both reproducing the itemised cost break-up. No contractor is named, no tender date published, no timeline given. This is a sanction, not an award.
One gap is worth flagging. The three itemised heads add to Rs 121.83 crore, Rs 11.40 crore short of the headline. The release does not say what the balance covers, so we will not guess. The cost-sharing halves do tie to Rs 133.2295 crore exactly.
Why is the per-kilometre rate so high?
Add the two published lengths and you get 835.9 m of structure, or about Rs 159 crore per km. Set that beside what this desk has costed lately: the Kopparthy greenfield stub in Andhra Pradesh at Rs 52.5 crore per km, the Chitrakoot link expressway near Rs 66 crore, the revised Mumbai-Goa corridor at Rs 47.6 crore. This sits at roughly three times our dearest road anchor.
The answer is in the break-up, not the geography. Sixty-nine per cent of the money is one steel truss thrown over a working railway. There is no cheap middle, no long run of plain formation and surfacing to pull the average down. Strip the girder out and the remaining 836 m costs about Rs 50 crore per km, which lands on our normal band.
What it means for equipment buyers
Read the scope and the fleet writes itself. Viaduct piers mean bored piles, so piling rigs and service cranes come first. Deck and pier concrete means a batching plant and pumps running most of the term. The 524 m approach is an embankment job: excavators, tippers on short hauls, soil compactors in layers.
The 62 per cent skew is not decoration. A crossing that oblique makes the girder longer and heavier than the track width suggests, and throws the pier layout out of square. It drives crane capacity and lift radius, not the budget line.
Our take, hedged: the heavy lift is the wrong thing to buy for. Erecting an Open Web Girder over live Western Railway track happens inside granted possession blocks, usually at night and usually short. A crawler crane sized for that lift earns its keep across a handful of scheduled windows, then stands. Hire it. What is worth owning is the plant that works every shift on the approach and the pier caps.
Price in the funding structure too. A 50:50 share means the Gujarat budget line has to land alongside the railway one before anything reaches tender. On shared ROBs, that is routinely where the months go.
What to watch
- The tender notice, and whether Western Railway or the Gujarat PWD executes it. That decides which bidder list the work reaches.
- A published span length for the Open Web Girder. Until it lands, nobody can size the erection crane.
- The possession-block calendar. Block availability, not contract value, will set the real programme.
- Whether the unexplained Rs 11.40 crore surfaces as road approaches, utility shifting or contingency in a detailed estimate.
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FAQ
Has a contractor been appointed for the Udhna Ukai Songadh ROB?
No. Indian Railways has sanctioned the cost. No tender has been published, no bidder named and no start date announced. A sanction is the budget decision that comes before an award.
Why does a four-lane ROB cost Rs 133 crore?
Because 69 per cent of it is one Open Web Girder crossing a live railway at a 62 per cent skew. The remaining 836 m of viaduct and approach is costed close to ordinary rates.
Which machines will the job need?
Piling rigs and cranes for the viaduct piers, a batching plant and concrete pumps through most of the term, and excavators, tippers and soil compactors on the railway approach embankment.
Related on DesiMachines: Mukutban-Gadchandur Rail Line Sanctioned: Rs 493 Crore for 38 km
Source: DeshGujarat
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