Guru Prakash, Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Eastern Circle, Kolkata carried out a two-day safety inspection of the newly built Ganga bridge along with doubling and electrification of Rajendrapul-Hathidah (Upper)-Rampur Dumra-Tal stations on October 3 and 4, 2026.
The inspection was carried out to assay the construction for prescribed quality and safety standards required for operating goods and passenger services. Train operations on this new bridge over the Ganga are now possible, post CRS authorization. With this, an additional route has been opened up to connect North Bihar and South Bihar by rail.
Built at a cost of Rs 2400 crore, the new bridge has been constructed parallel to the existing Rajendra Pul at a distance of 50 metres towards Patna end. The project is 15.5-km long which includes a 1.9-km long double line bridge over the Ganga. The bridge consists of 17 steel spans over the Ganga and 3.6 kms of rail viaduct. In addition to the main bridge, eight minor bridges, two road-over-bridges and three rail-over-rail bridges have also been constructed.
The construction of the new bridge has been done in a way that entails minimal change in the approach of the existing bridge. The new bridge connects the same stations at both ends that is, Hathidah, Tal and Rampur Dumra stations on the south side and Rajendrapul and Barauni stations on the north side.
Train operations will continue from the existing old Rajendra Setu taking the total number of lines to three. This will strengthen rail connectivity from the rest of India to the Northeast and is expected to increase rail traffic by 2.5 times. This will also reduce the time and cost of freight transportation, which in turn will benefit trade and movement of essential goods.
