Ranchi to get state’s first cable-stayed bridge by 2024

Ranchi: The city will have a cable-stayed bridge-cum-flyover –– a first of its kind in the state –– by February 2024. Also known as hanging bridge, it is an engineering marvel in which a large span of the bridge remains suspended, effectively minimising land usage.
Chief minister Hemant Soren in 2020 threw the challenge of working out a plan to decongest main road overbridge and Kadru overbridge that connect two parts of the city which is separated by a railway line and Harmu river.
The urban development and housing department (UD&HD) and the road construction department (RCD) were asked to find a solution. The RCD proposed a new bridge that would be a mix of road overbridge (ROB) and flyover.
“The detailed project report was prepared in nine months due to the complex nature of the project where the bridge was supposed to cross railway line, Harmu river and also run over the existing ROB for quite some distance,” secretary, RCD, Sunil Kumar said. The design for a little less than 2 km, four-lane overbridge project was prepared after carrying out the alignments and possibility of constructing cable-stayed bridge.
The project got the cabinet’s nod in February 2022 two years after the challenge was thrown. Earlier planned to connect Siramtoli Chowk and Rajendra Chowk through Patel Chowk, it was later modified to extend upto Mecon roundabout and further bifurcate into two 2-lane roads, one arm each descending to Doranda post office and the Nepal house, increasing its length to 2.34 km.
Kumar said instead of using beam bridge, a decision was taken to construct cable-stayed bridge to minimise requirement of land. Admitting that acquiring land in the town area is a tedious task, he said though the span of the bridge increased due to the cable-stayed structure, the new design would speed up the project execution.
Since the bridge was supposed to cross railway tracks close to Ranchi railway station and use some parts of railway land, the chief minister held discussion with the Union railway minister for the approval. Estimated to be constructed at a cost of Rs 337cr, Larson & Toubro and Shapoorji and Pallonji have won the technical bid.
Kumar said it was a matter of few days when the tender would be awarded to any one of them on the basis of financial bid. “Negotiations are on with L&T at this stage and likely to be finalised soon,” he said.
The project completion period is of 20 months. Once completed, it would largely reduce traffic load on Kadru overbridge and main road overbridge. The cable-stayed bridge would go over the top of existing bridge for quite some distance without any pillars of beams touching the ground.