Prayagraj: The Public Works Department (PWD) has fast tracked the construction of pontoon bridges across Ganga and Yamuna that was delayed due to prolonged period of floods.
The construction of the first pontoon bridge of the fair area in Old GT that started on Oct 21 was completed on Wednesday. With the painting of railings on both ends of this bridge over, it will be opened for traffic on Friday.
Now, the PWD has fast tracked construction of the remaining 29 out of the proposed 30 pontoon bridges joining the 25 sectors of the vast mela area spanning over 4,400 hectares.
On Oct 21, the construction block four of the department started work simultaneously to prepare Old GT, Gangotri-Shivala and Harishchandra pontoon bridges. Out of these, the Old GT pontoon bridge was completed on Wednesday. Sixty-four pontoons have been floated and stabilised in the Ganga, over which brand new sleepers of Saal have been placed to complete this 320m-long bridge.
Along with this, Gangotri-Shivala, Mahavir North, Jagdish Ramp and Kali, Anant Madhav, Nagvasuki, Venimadhav and Gangeshwar pontoon bridges are expected to be ready by Nov 26, said executive engineer of the block, Surendra Singh.
In another development, repair work will be done once again on the Shastri Bridge connecting Prayagraj to the eastern districts of the state from next week. The repair work will continue for four months, but during this time, traffic will not be stopped on both lanes of the bridge.
Last month, executive engineer of construction block 3 of the PWD, Naveen Kumar Sharma, sent a proposal of Rs 18 crore to the headquarters for the repair of the bridge, which has been approved by the finance committee of the department.
Repair work on the bearing of 256 spans of the bridge will be done.