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At 63.5m, Jagraon Bridge’s bowstring girder longest in Punjab
Has already become the cynosure of all eyes with city residents often being spotted taking pictures of the structure and uploading it on social media
At 63.5-metres, Jagraon bridge’s bowstring girder is the longest in Punjab.
Disclosing this, senior section engineer of the railways, Gurdeep Singh said that in the past two years, bowstring bridges have become a trend. “As of now, there is only one more bowstring bridge in Punjab, which is in Shahkot and it is 48m long,” he added.
The new Jagraon Bridge has already become the cynosure of all eyes with city residents often being spotted taking pictures of the structure and uploading it on social media.
Giving details about it, SSE (constructions) Gurdeep Singh said, “Jagraon Bridge is the longest bowstring bridge in the state. It is 63.5m long, 15m wide and 10m high. The road to be constructed on this bridge will be a three-lane road, each lane being 10.5m wide.”
Punjab road safety council member Rahul Verma, who is overseeing the project, said, “There are over 33,000 nut bolts and each one is being tightened only after a thorough inspection.”
A senior railway official from the Indian Railway Boards, New Delhi, was in the city on Tuesday to inspect the construction work of Jagraon Bridge.
Alok Kansal, principal executive director (bridge), Indian Railway Board, examined the progress of the construction work and checked the quality of work. He said there were minor issues regarding the quality. “However, I given some suggestions to the team and asked them to comply with those suggestions and rectify the errors,” he said, adding that the rest of the work is being carried out at a good pace.
“We are trying our best to complete the task by January end and hand over the bridge to the municipal corporation. I will also request the MC to complete their work in two months’ time and make the bridge functional within this financial year,” he said, adding that it is going to be the longest bridge with bowstring girder in the state.
Kansal said, “As of now we are left with the work of placing the girder at its place and then a concrete surface will be established for making road on the surface. After completing these two tasks, the bridge will be handed over to MC.”
He added that Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) is conducting frequent inspections and checking the quality of the work.
Earlier, mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu had announced that the bridge would be opened to public on Baisakhi (April 13). The reconstruction of the bridge, costing around ₹24.3 crore, is being carried out by a Delhi-based company, Spacechem, that prepared the material for the girder at its Ghaziabad-based workshop and brought it to the city, where it was assembled. All the work is being carried out under the observation of a railway officer.Last month, the railways installed CCTV cameras at the construction site to check the ongoing construction work of the bridge and ensuring its timely completion.
