The East Coast Railway, one of the blue-chip zones of Indian Railways, has created a record by completing a subway construction at a busy railway track between Pendurthi and Kothavalasa line in Andhra Pradesh in less than five hours. The level crossing number 484 between Kothavalasa and Pendurthi was a manned level crossing until now.

''The work to construct the subway was sanctioned in 2017, and the limited height subway work, which comprised the installation of 20 segments of 1.5m width, was started in over four and a half hours back,'' said a railway employee posted at East Coast Railway Visakhapatnam, who was also managing the construction work.

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The Railways authorities used 16 heavy duty excavators, three heavy duty cranes, five tippers (truck), 1,000 sandbags, four hydra machines, heavyweight jacks, and a workforce of as many as 300 people to complete the task in just over four hours.

"Initially, the track was removed with the help of cranes, and earthwork was started from both the sides. Simultaneously, the work related to the shifting of boxes and base plate was also done. After we were halfway through, the surface was prepared and base slabs and pre-fabricated boxes were placed using heavy duty cranes,'' said the official.

The official said that to save time, the boxes were lifted from both sides and placed at the requisite location while the earthwork was on. "It took an hour to place all the 20 boxes, 1.5 hours to place base slabs after building the surface and the linking of the track, and the total block was completed in 4 hours and 30 minutes,'' said the ECR official. Though the Railways constructed the subway in less than five hours, the approach road here was constructed in one and a half month.

The area people have been hailing the Railways achievement for completing the Limited Height Subway project in record time. A social media user said that in April 2017 too, the East Coast Railway Zone had set a record by completing a limited height subway between Ramamurthy Panthulu Peta and Visakhapatnam in just 3 hours and 30 minutes.