Second Mahanadi Rail Bridge
Second Mahanadi Rail Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 20°29′07″N 85°54′38″E / 20.4852°N 85.9105°E |
| Carries | Kharagpur-Puri line, Howrah-Chennai main line |
| Crosses | Mahanadi River |
| Locale | Cuttack |
| Characteristics | |
| Total length | 2,100 metres (6,900 ft) |
| History | |
| Opened | 2008 |
| Location | |
The Second Mahanadi Rail Bridge is a rail bridge over the Mahanadi near Cuttack in the Indian state of Odisha.
The first Mahanadi Rail Bridge was opened on 1 January 1899. It had 64 spans of 100 feet (30 meters) each, on wells 19 ft 6 in (5.94 meters) in diameter sunk to 60 ft (18 meters) below low water level. The engineer in charge of construction of the first Mahanadi Rail Bridge was William Beckett, who won a gold medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901 for a paper he presented on the bridge construction.
The 2.1 km (1.3 mi) long Second Mahanadi Rail Bridge was built at a cost of ₹120 crore (US$14 million) and commissioned in 2008. The bridge has been designed for a train speed of 160 km per hour (99.41 miles per hour). "Adequate steps" are said to have been taken to ensure the bridge can withstand earthquake shocks.