railway bridges

About 40 per cent of the country's railway bridges are more than 100 years old, the Rajya Sabha was told.Indian Railways has approximately 127,000 railway bridges of which about 51,000 are more than 100 years old.The life of a bridge is not based on its age but on physical condition as ascertained by inspections. The railways have a well laid down system of multi-tier inspection of bridges. Bridges showing signs of deterioration of physical condition indicate need for repair and are classified as distressed bridges. These are neither unsafe nor dilapidated bridges. In 2001-02, the railways identified 2,370 bridges as distressed for which Rs15,300 million was given under Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) for their repair. During the five-year period 2001-02 to 2006-07, Rs8,758.4 million was given under the SRSF for repair of 2,087 bridges. Under the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) Rs6,758.7 million was given for 5,476 bridges to be repaired.During the current 2007-08, the railways had identified 190 bridges for repair under SRSF, for which Rs4,455 million has been given, while for repair of 1,254 bridges under DRF, Rs15,710 million has been given.