Heavy vehicles banned; flyover to be mended, says ADM
What was apprehended since long back is going to happen soon. A big whole of 2ft length and 1ft width was noticed in the 64 years old Brahmani bridge near Panposh on Monday fueling speculation about its collapse anytime now.
The administration and police have stopped plying of heavy vehicles on it. As a result, communication between Rourkela-Sundargarh and Rourkela-Ranchi was cut off since Monday evening.
Sources said keeping in view of the deteriorating condition and plying of a large number of heavy vehicles over it, the locals had been demanding for over a decade construction of a second bridge over the Brahmani rier near Panposh.
Every day thousands of trucks used to ply to transport iron ore and coal to different sponge iron plants and
other units. The traffic load had also increased due to transportation of heavy machineries on the bridge during the second modernization of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), which is still underway.
The Brahmani bridge was not envisaged for such huge vehicular pressure and is estimated to have outlived its normal life span now.
Besides this, it is the only connecting bridge from Rourkela to Kansbahal, Rajgangpur, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Kuarmunda, Biramitrapur and Ranchi. After the hole was detected, the local ADM immediately rushed to the spot and stopped plying of heavy vehicles. However, the stoppage of heavy vehicles has led to another problem. Thousands of labourers are also stranded in both sides of the bridge as the public vehicles are not plying and the river is swelled now.
According to ADM RN Mishra, he has already taken up the matter with the NH authority and the repairing work may be finished by Tuesday evening by the same contractor who had patched up a hole a year back by putting a steel plate.
But this time, the hole size is bigger than last year’s and hence repair work may not last long, apprehended many. Now police have been deployed in both sides of bridge to control the traffic and restrict the plying of heavy vehicles.
It may be noted here that considering the necessity of a second bridge over river Brahmani, the NHAI had called for tender. It also included widening of the total 125.615 km of the NH, four-lanning of a stretch of around 88 km between Birmitrapur and Rajamunda. The Gammon Infrastructure Projects limited (GIPl), a sister concern of Gammon India limited, was awarded the tender on May 31, 2012 at a cost of Rs 778.6 crore. As per the contract, out of 25 years, construction should be completed in 2.5 years and during the rest 22.5 years, toll collection would be made. Accordingly, the contractor had opened its office at Rourkela.
According to sources, as per the procedure, the company would have started construction work of the road and the bridge after getting about 80 per cent of the total land required for the purpose.
But, since March last, the administration has failed to hand over the required land and other mandatory clearances. Fed up with the delay in land acquisition and forest and environment clearances, the company opted out of the project and also closed down its Rourkela office in March last.
“We incurred losses of more than Rs 1.5 crore during the last one and a half years, as the project got delayed due to delay in land acquisition. Hence, we have decided to quit the project,” said project head S Satapathy while leaving Rourkela.