Setting aside all notions that most of the infrastructure projects being commissioned now were initiated by the previous Governments, the Nitin Gadkari led Road Transport Ministry has created history by building a complete new river bridge in Maharashtra in less than six months. The old bridge was destroyed during the last monsoon.
The old Masonry Arch Bridge on Savitri and Kal river near Mahad constructed in 1928 had collapsed due to heavy rainfall on August 2, 2016. Gadkari had announced that a new bridge will be constructed at the same location within six months.
The projects has been completed within 165 days with a cost Rs 35.77 crore before the onset of the coming Monsoon in the region. The newly constructed Savitri Bridge will be thrown open to public on Monday be Gadkari and Maha-rashtra CM Devendra Phadnis.
The New Bridge is 16 meter wide and 239m long. It is fitted with proper lighting arrangement, has has wide footpath as well as flood alarm system. It is made of anti-corrosive steel and and painted with carbonation paint.
“The work on the construction of bridge was done on war footing. The survey, design and detailed estimate was prepared by the State PWD in-house within 3 weeks and submitted to MoRTH on August 20 last year. Within a week, the Centre sanctioned the estimate and tenders called,” said a MoRTH official.
“Several weak bridges are also proposed for re-construction with new 4/6 lane bridges. At present, Contract for 4-laning of 352.57 km out of total 366.17 km has already been awarded and work is likely to start soon,” said the official.
The Government also approved four-laning of the Mumbai-Goa road was under NHDP-IV scheme. The Panvel-Mahad-Panjim National Highway No. 66 is major importance highway which connects Mumbai to Goa State and in addition southern states of the country and one of the busiest national highways (NH) of India having traffic about 19000 PCU.