Northern Railways has awarded Engineering, Construction and Contracts (ECC) Division of L&T the contract to build a steel bridge, over Jhajjar Khad, on the Udhampur - Katra Rail Link being laid in the higher reaches of the Jammu sector of north India. This bridge - No.20 over Jhajjar Khad - will be one of the tallest bridges, with an 85 metre high single pier support). The bridge will have two spans of 154 metres each. The scope of the contract is valued at Rs.37.53crore.

This is the first time that the Indian Railways will be going in for such a long span bridge. It will be supported by (well foundation) abutments at either end with a single pier in between. The 1800t bridge will be constructed of high tensile steel for the superstructure in triangulated girders (warren type steel truss) and is to be erected by 'Incremental Launching' method from one end with a launching nose.

In addition to the construction of this bridge, the contract includes construction of a second bridge - Bridge No. 93 over Gambhir Khad on the Jammu-Udampur Rail Link. This bridge comprising three girder spans of 80m, 102m and 102m will be supported on two piers, (50m to 70m in height) and abutments to be built with open foundation. The piers, which have been partly constructed, will be suitably modified and completed to support the superstructure (warren-type truss), which will also be incrementally launched.

In order to help the client meet delivery schedules, ECC has set a stringent project completion period of 18 months, in respect of Bridge No. 93.

Mr A Ramakrishna, President (Operations) & Dy Managing Director, L&T said, "The company has wide experience in the areas of steel bridges, incremental launching and well sinking techniques. We have successfully engineered innumerable constructions such as the Nizamuddin Bridge in Delhi, the Kinabatangan Steel Bridge in Malaysia (having 144metre span) and other tall and long viaducts in some of the most difficult terrain. This assignment is a reward to our engineering expertise as well as signifies the trust that our customer has in ECC", he added while announcing the news on the award of this contract.

Recently, ECC obtained the ISO 9000 accreditation from LRQA for its Buildings & Infrastructure Cluster SBU.

About ECC Division of L&T :
Engineering, Construction and Contract Division (ECC) of L&T services and engineers turnkey industrial and infrastructural projects in civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering. The Headquarters of the division is located at Chennai. ECC's construction capabilities have secured wide recognition including ISO certification in areas like safety engineering, formwork, and HRD. ECC's business activities are executed by eighteen Strategic Business Units (SBUs), which formulate policies, perform marketing functions and ensure project execution to international benchmark of quality and time.