Govt assures new six- lane Zuari bridge in 3 years
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The new six lane bridge over River Zuari will be completed in three years, Public Works Development Minister Ramakrishna Sudin Dhavalikar promised in the Goa legislative assembly on Tuesday, adding that the chief minister had already directed the PWD to start the work for construction of the bridge, even though the Union Ministry is yet to give its final nod.
“The DPR (detailed project report) will be ready within the next three months and thereafter, tenders will be floated for construction of the new bridge”, he said, assuring, “We will see that the bridge is completed within three years.”
The Zuari bridge was constructed in 1983. In April 1997 it was closed for heavy traffic and refurbished in 1999 at a cost of Rs 5 crore after cracks and stress was noticed. It was then given a 15-year lease of life. According to the experts report, the warranty of the present bridge that has an overall length of 810 metres, and comprises of five ‘T’ arms, two suspended spans and five viaduct spans of 36 metre each, is to expire in 2015.
A recent routine inspection of the Zuari bridge by experts and PWD authorities had also noticed that the corrosion rate was very high and the bridge had developed several cracks.
It may be recalled that in a pre-budget interaction, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had said that he would go ahead with the construction of a new Zuari bridge by June, even without the necessary permissions from the National Highways Authority of India.
The state had sent a proposal to the Centre asking that it be allowed to carry out the six to four lane expansion for the 139-km stretch including bridges over rivers Zuari, Talpona and Galgibaga with the chief minister writing to the Union Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST) asking for NOC ( no objection certificate) for the proposal.
The state already has a project report for a state-of-the-art cable stayed bridge across the Zuari with a projected cost of Rs 900 crore for a 360-metre bridge with only two pillars. It is likely to be constructed on the right side of the present Zuari bridge, and is to begin next to the Silveira ramp on the Agacaim side and end near the Boniface Cross on the other side.
PWD officials say that a cable-stayed bridge or a steel bridge are the only options and added that a steel bridge like the Konkan Railway one, requires regular maintenance. “There is no guarantee on pre-stressed bridges and that is why the PWD had issued a ban after the Mandovi bridge collapsed. In the hinterland it is still okay. But on the coastal belt, it is a total no no,” a highly place source said.
According to the source, in 2005, the government technical department was asked to prepare an estimate for a steel bridge after fears were raised about the safety of the Zuari bridge, since cracks were noticed. The project report was prepared and a consultant appointed when the government decided against the proposal and the order subsequently cancelled in 2007. The consultant was paid Rs 28 lakh for the report.
