Mahatma Gandhi Setu to be redone by NHAI: finally, a decision comes through!
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Patna: according to the latest reports, the superstructure of the 29-year-old Mahatma Gandhi Setu is to be dismantled and redone. The decision came after a meeting between AK Upadhyaya, the Union ministry of road transport and highways secretary and the state officials including road construction department (RCD) secretary Pratyaya Amrit. Upadhyaya said ‘The National Highway Authority of India will be assigned the task to dismantle and redo the superstructure’. The state government had pleaded for the takeover of the bridge by the NHAI and The Centre has accepted this proposal.
First, the NHAI will do a diagnostic study and will take a call on what exactly is to be done with this bridge only after a technical survey.
It is well-known that the state’s request had been pending with the Union ministry for long. The NHAI has taken up the four-lane project on the Patna-Bakhtiarpur and Muzaffarpur-Chhapra route. But it had left out the stretch from Ramashish Chowk to Zero Mile between which the Gandhi Setu falls. Notification on the matter is likely to be made soon by the centre. Gandhi Setu’s one lane was opened for traffic in 1982 while the other in 1987 and similarly communication would continue on one of the two lanes of the bridge even after the dismantling begins.
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