The Mahatma Gandhi overbridge connecting Patna with North Bihar has been in serious trouble for some time now, but efforts to reduce pressure on the bridge and start serious repairs are proving too much for the Bihar administration. The government planned to construct two pontoon bridges to reduce the load on the main bridge which is about thirty years old or thereabout.

Pressure on Gandhi Setu will continue, as work on the second pontoon bridge will be stopped after Tuesday’s squall washed it away.

The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd (BRPNNL), the project’s nodal agency, has also decided to dismantle the  bridge in the first week of June.

Road construction department officials tried to allay fears saying commuters should not be grossly inconvenienced if the road section of the Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge becomes functional in time. “Yesterday’s squall hit ongoing work on the second pontoon bridge badly – the structure actually got washed away,” a senior engineer of the nodal agency told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

It was said that  60 per cent work of the second pontoon bridge was complete. The engineer said the 2km-long second bridge would become functional during Chhath Puja, which falls in the last week of October.

Once the first pontoon bridge is dismantled, traffic would pile up on Gandhi Setu but the engineer said there would be no inconvenience “if the road section of the Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge becomes functional by June 11”.

He, however, did not say that in the first 2-3 months only light vehicles would be allowed on the road section. Heavy vehicles would continue to use Gandhi Setu, which is currently in a bad shape. Repairs on the Gandhi Setu is apparently scheduled to  sometime in the first week of June, but no formal decision has been taken yet.

During the repair period, the Setu’s western flank would be closed, increasing pressure on the eastern flank. “We have received the Patna district magistrate’s report on the trial performed over the Setu,” road construction principal secretary Amrit Lal Meena said. “A decision will soon be taken to start restructuring of Gandhi Setu once the chief secretary gives a formal approval. The chief secretary-level meeting has not taken place yet.”

After a 24-hour trial run on the Setu and the pontoon bridge on April 13, to figure out how traffic would behave once Gandhi Setu goes for restructuring, district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal submitted his report on April 20.

The first pontoon bridge, for vehicles coming from the Hajipur side, came up in February. Around 8,000 small vehicles (commercial and heavy vehicles not allowed) take this facility daily. The total cost of building the two pontoon bridges is Rs 89 crore including cost of maintenance for the next five years.

  Bihar, bridge