THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After getting a first-hand experience of laying pipelines under the road without making any trenches (at Museum Junction), this time we set out to see how pipelines are laid under the railway tracks. And so we landed near the Kripa Theatre, from where the work has started. The good news is, the work has crossed the first of the 11 tracks. Both the works, which involve the same process, are part of the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA)-assisted water supply project. An open trench is made first; a labourer (s) would sit in the same and cut through the earth manually and scoop out the soil; the pipes are lowered into the trench and pushed through the opening using hydraulic jack.The work under the tracks, which is part of the transmission main of JICA project, is being undertaken by Larsen and Toubro (L&T). The work, which officially commenced after September 14, involves the laying of pipes under the tracks to reach near the RMS office on the other side. “Of the 11 tracks, the first few are basically shunting tracks. We lay the casing pipes first and we have now crossed the first track,” said an official with L&T. The work is expected to be completed in two months.For the work, an open trench of some 5.5 to 6 m depth was made first. A retaining wall was constructed to withstand the frictional force produced while the pipes are pushed inside. Then the basement of the trench was strengthened using concrete layers. Beams were fixed for the pipes to be placed on them. The casing pipes - Mild Steel pipes of 1,200-mm diameter, 2.5 m length and 20 mm thickness - are laid under the tracks first. Drinking water pipes, ie 800 mm Mild Steel pipes of 8.8 mm thickness, are laid inside them. A total distance of 96 m will be covered during the work (which includes the distance covered under the main road) and 38 pieces of casing pipes will be laid during the process.Though the trench has been made at a depth of nearly 6 m, the pipes would be laid some 2.5 m under the tracks. “The labourers have had to face many difficulties. One problem is that this particular land is marshy and they have to deal with seepage. And while the earth is being removed, they encountered many hurdles, in the form of huge sleepers and rock. Also, we had to slightly alter our entrance point because two old pipelines had come in the way of the original alignment. And when a new entrance point was marked, we had to deal with a concrete structure first,” said another L&T official.Nearly 30 labourers, including hands from Tamil Nadu and Orissa, are working in different shifts at the site. While the pipes are laid in the morning, the welding takes place at night. “We are using six hydraulic jacks, each with a capacity of 200 tonnes, for pushing the pipes inside. In a single push, nearly 300 mm will go inside,” an official said. From next week onwards, a paramedical staff will be there at the site to deal with any emergency, he added. The Railway officials and those with the JICA consultancy, ie Tokyo Engineering Consortium, are keeping a tab on the progress of the work regularly.
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