load testing of newly constructed ‘Garga Bridge’ is only eyewash; this test has worthless, only formalities has been done, alleged Dev Sharma president Youth Congress of Bokaro district.
“Amidst several ‘technical snag’ and ruled out the National Highway department’s engineers orders this bridge is erected by Hindustan Steelworks Construction limited (HSCl) and now on load testing for allow traffic”, added
Sharma.
The load testing of the bridge is performing without removing the ground supports of the bridge which is only eyewash, he said adding “like Kolkata flyover incident another collapse may feared here in Bokaro”.
A team led by Dr Debasis of Yadavpur University West Bengal performed the load testing by placing 80 tonns of weight (sand begs and iron wait) on the bridge without removing the support of the bridge.
This bridge is eleven metre wide and102 metre long with a load-handling capacity between 150 tonne to 300 tonne erected on Garga River at NH 23, connects Bokaro and Chas, was delayed over four years from its scheduled time and completed in the first week of March this year. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid on 5 November 2010 with a deadline of 5 November 2012 to complete.
The delay in construction has led rise in its cost, the bridge was to be constructed within Rs 3.58 crore, now costs more than Rs 5 crore, sources said.
During that period construction work was stopped several times. Then state road Secretary Rajbala Verma also ordered to stop the construction work after she found several irregularities, said A Singh a RTI activist.
In a RTI reply (vide letter no 85/2012-1300 dated 30-12-15) a team of the executive engineer Mukesh Kumar along with assistant engineers of NHAI Dhanbad inspected the construction work, finding snag they were ordered to dismantle the concreting work of P1-P2 span of the bridge as it was not up to mark. But without dismantling that slab bridge was erected which may feared of a drastic accident in future, alleged Singh.