Brief of the Project

NTPC and UPRVUNL have formed a 50:50 Joint Venture Company under the name of Meja Urja Nigam Pvt. Ltd. (MUNPL) for establishing a 1320 MW (2 x 660 MW) coal based thermal power plant at Meja in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Considering the capability of RITES in the fields of transport and Railway infrastructure, NTPC/MUNPL engaged RITES as Project Managers for preparation of DPR and ESP, detailed engineering, project management and construction of coal transportation system for the proposed thermal power plant, on I.R. system. Entire track planning for transporting loaded rakes of coal from IR to Plant has been done by RITES. Regional Project Office of RITES at Lucknow took up this assignment of planning, designing, Project Management Consultancy for construction of Railway siding. Entire design of structures and systems has been done by RITES only. Construction of all structures has been completed. Part of Railway siding has been commissioned and coal rake movement started in December-2018. Rails for track linking were purchased from SAIL by placing order on SAIL by RITES. Actual field work commenced in November 2013 starting from formation and bridge works package inside plant. Entire project is near completion. Total cost of Railway siding project is Rs 853 Crore.

Siding features

Design speed 75 kmph

Axle load 32.5 t DFC loading for formation and bridges

25 t IRS for track and other structures

Gauge 1676 mm

Rails 60 kg welded into SWR

Sleeper density PSC sleepers, 1540 per km inside plant and 1660 per km outside plant

Turnouts 60 kg rail, 1 in 12 turnouts (26 Nos.) and in 8.5 turnouts (46 Nos.) with curved switches and CMS crossings on PSC sleepers fan shaped layout

Ballast Cushion 300mm inside plant and 350mm outside plant

Formation Width 8.1m in embankment and 10.5m in cutting

Welding/Joints Flash butt/  AT welding, SWR

Track centers 6.0m

Curvature 4.67 degree on Viaduct

Sharpest degree of 5.385 other than Viaduct

Number of Curves 22 inside plant and 33 outside plant

Route length 38.90 km (inside plant 6.82 km, outside plant 32.08 km)

Track length 57.12 km (inside plant 21.31 km, outside plant 35.81 km)

Ruling gradient 1 in 150

Steepest gradient 1 in 150

Number of ROBs 2 (inside plant)

ROR bridge 1 No.

Viaduct 1 No. of 2 km length

No. of RUBs 58

Total no. of bridges 154 Nos. (Major and Minor bridges including ROR, Viaduct, ROBs and RUBs)

Role of RITES

RITES worked as Project Managers and was responsible for packaging, preparation of tender document, floating and finalisation of tenders, award of contracts, supervision, quality control, cost control, contract management besides other construction project management activities including obtaining approval from Railway and other authorities.

Major components of works

• One 61.0 m span DFC loading Open Web Girder Rail over Rail Bridge crossing IR and DFC tracks.
• One 2.0 km long RCC viaduct taking off from IR and meeting main siding approach after crossing DFC tracks.
• More than 58 Lac Cum of earthwork in embankment involving high banks.
• More than 11 Lac Cum of cutting in rock including hard rock requiring blasting.
• 150 no. of RCC box, major and minor bridges.
• 2 nos. 1X36+1X24 m composite girder ROBs inside plant.
• About 58 km Railway track linking where route mm is 39.
• Complete OHE & S&T works.

Role in Construction Project Management

I, B.C. Srivastava worked as Project Coordinator in-charge of part of total project, i.e. Package-6B which included construction of one 61.0 m span DFC loading Open Web Girder Rail over Rail (ROR) Bridge crossing IR and DFC tracks and one 2.0 km long RCC viaduct elevated corridor (Rail Fly Over or RFO) taking off from IR and meeting main siding approach after crossing proposed two DFC tracks, contracted at Rs 179 Crore with completion cost at Rs 156 Crore. I was involved right from the tendering stage including floating and finalization of e-tenders and award of contract. These two structures under this package, commonly known as ROR and Viaduct, have been constructed and completed under my supervision and control. Prior to work of ROR and Viaduct, I also worked as Project Coordinator for the PMC work for construction of formation and bridges inside plant, i.e. Package-1 which commenced in November 2013 and was completed in August 2015 at a completion cost of Rs 98.50 Crore. Details of only ROR and Viaduct are however given here, these two being more important and challenging.

About  ROR and Viaduct

ROR is crossing two main Railway lines between Meja Road and Unchdih stations of IR on Howrah – New Delhi line at Km 781/25-27. Its superstructure is 61.0m Open Web Girder, 32.5t DFC loading RDSO standard design. Bearings are of Rocker & Roller type. ROR is on open foundation. Due to requirement of bearing capacity at founding level, sand and GSB layer was provided as a ground improvement measure recommended by RITES Geo-technical wing. M-35 grade of concrete has been used in ROR foundation and sub structure

Viaduct is taking off from Unchdih station of IR. Flying over proposed two tracks of DFC, it finally meets the main approach of Meja TPP railway siding.  1200mm bored cast in-situ piles have been provided in foundation. In super structure, steel composite girders have been provided. There are total 78 spans in the Viaduct. 58 spans of straight portion of viaduct are based on RDSO standard girders of 24.4 m span for DFC loading. 20 spans of curved portion of viaduct for DFC loading were designed by RITES Rail Civil Engineering Design (RCED) wing of RITES. Super structure of curved portion of viaduct comprises of 5 no. spans of 12.2 m and 15 no. spans of 24.4 m. POT-PTFE type bearings have been provided in the viaduct.  M-35 grade concrete has been used in piles and most of pile caps. In some pile caps M-40 concrete has also been used. In pedestals M-45 Concrete has been used. In deck slabs, M-30 and M-40 concrete has been used in RDSO standard spans and RITES designed spans respectively. Load testing of 2 spans as per IRC SP-51 was carried out at site and results were found satisfactory.

Construction of ROR and Viaduct package was awarded at a value of Rs 179.50 Crore. Working agency for ROR and Viaduct is M/s M.G. Contractors Pvt. Limited who completed the work as a JV company M/s MGCPL-ATEPL (JV). The work has been completed at a total cost of Rs 156 Crore in January 2020 and handed over for linking of track on it. Financial closure of this work is underway.

These works involved huge quantity of fabrication of structural steel in ROR and steel composite girders of Viaduct. For fabrication of structural steel components, a workshop was established at site itself which met the requirement of Schedule of Technical Requirements of RDSO. The workshop was got approved from RDSO. All tests on structural steel being used have been conducted as per IRS: B1 Specifications of RDSO. All tests were carried out as per IS:2062 by NTH Ghaziabad, NTH Kolkata and RITES Kolkata. SAIL and Jindal structural steel plates, angles and channels have been used. Process flow chart of fabrication of girders as followed is given below:

Process Flow Chart of Steps Involved in Fabrication of Girders

Launching of ROR – open web girder was done by providing skidding arrangement of PTFE sheet over rails which were placed on temporary erected CC Crib structure. Alignment of temporary structure i.e. CC crib along with positioning of NP beams over them were minutely checked and verified at site. 2 nos. of CC cribs near IR track were erected during power block. Mock drill for erection of CC crib was conducted at site to know the constraints and to avoid them during actual block period. Skidding of OWG above IR was achieved in 40 minutes as against 2  hrs block sanctioned by Railways. Launching of OWG using skidding arrangement is seen in the adjoining photograph.

Work Challenges and Contributions made