The Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) has issued conditional clearance to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) to operate trains through the 1.20-km SN Junction-Thripunithura metro viaduct, provided the metro agency gets the corridor inspected by experts from IIT/CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC) within four months.
In a ‘provisional authorisation’ letter issued on February 22 to KMRL, a copy of which was seen by The Hindu, the CMRS, Anant M. Chowdhary, referred to instances of recording, among others, ‘higher camber values’ in the corridor. He went on to state that the provisional authorisation (to open the corridor for commercial use) would be subject to conditions / stipulations.
His letter says thus: “Based on the records of design camber and actual camber measured for the pre-stressed concrete [PSC] girders, it is found that there are higher camber (up to +575%) recorded compared to the design camber. There were seven design cambers specified, varying from 11 mm to 52 mm, for the similar type of 25-m length PSC girder. During statutory inspection, this issue was highlighted for which no satisfactory details were furnished. Subsequently, KMRL has come up with revised design camber values. Measured camber values were still found higher (up to +263%) compared to revised design camber values.”
