Arch bridge near JN stadium ready

One of the two arch-shaped pedestrian bridges that were supposed to come up near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium before the Commonwealth Games in 2010 is finally ready and is likely to be opened on Wednesday.

One of the two arch-shaped pedestrian bridges that were supposed to come up near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium before the Commonwealth Games in 2010 is finally ready and is likely to be opened on Wednesday.

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Senior public works department (PWD) engineers said final touches were being given.

“Our work is complete. The bridge should be opened on Wednesday,” a PWD spokesperson said. Work on the second pedestrian bridge, which had collapsed a few days before the Commonwealth Games, has started. “The fabrication work has already begun. It should take about two months to complete,” the spokesperson added.

The PWD had planned the two bridges to facilitate the movement of people from the parking lot to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue of the opening and closing ceremonies and several sporting events of the Commonwealth Games.

During the construction of the first bridge, one of the 26 suspenders gave away and the deck came crashing down, injuring 27 workers.

The government suspended the construction and later took the help of the army to build a temporary bridge to facilitate the movement of pedestrians. An inquiry committee later found problem in the equipment supplied by an

UK-based company, which was blacklisted.

The PWD has already built three such arch-shaped bridges in east Delhi — two on National Highway-24 and another on Road No. 56 — near Ghaziapur. It was only after the Delhi Cabinet’s approval that the PWD started rebuilding the two pedestrian bridges near the JLN Stadium.