The East Coast Railway(ECoR) has adopted Micro-Tunneling System to clear the logged water from Bhubaneswar Railway Station yard the signaling system of Railways as well as train services in Howrah-Chennai Main Line.
ECoR sources said the drainage system and clearance of logged water from the Railway Station yard and surrounding areas during heavy rains was a major problem since long.
The Municipal Drain connecting to Station areas was inadequate to discharge the water accumulated whenever heavy rains lashed the area. The huge quantity of rain water from Ashok Nagar area and Station area overflows and comes to South end and also North end of Bhubaneswar Railway Station yard.
The flooding of yard by heavy rains was making the points nonfunctional and leading to signal failure and ultimately resulting in disruption of train traffic. The passengers were also facing lot of inconvenience due to disruption of traffic. Passengers had to walk through the flooded platforms on many occasions To resolve this problem, the rebuilding of bridge was planned but it could not be executed due to difficulties in execution and huge demand of traffic block.
The ECoR then decided to adopt micro tunneling methodology a trenchless construction method used to install pipelines beneath highways, railroads, runways, harbors, rivers, and environmentally sensitive areas.
The drainage problem of Bhubaneswar yard is expected to be eliminated after implementation of this micro tunneling method which will be completed in 30 days.
ECoR claimed that the micro tunneling method has been used for first time in East Coast Railway