Team Herald
MARGAO: The inauguration of the much-awaited Chandor-Curtorim Bridge has been further delayed and will be open for the traffic movement by the end of January.
PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral held a site inspection along with the department officials on Monday morning and informed that the bridge will open for the traffic by the month end. He further informed that the encroachments on the acquired land for the road near the bridge will be removed immediately ahead of the opening.
“Most probably we will be inaugurating the bridge by the end of January without hot mixing the road, but all necessary precautions will be taken,” he told reporters.
He further informed that the hot mixing works of the said road will be done in the month of April-May.
“Presently the department has not used the entire stretch of land which is acquired for the approaching road and hence we will use it at the later stages. But at the same time all the encroachments will be removed from the acquired land,” said Cabral.
The bridge was earlier expected to be commissioned by January 2022 while the dates were again pushed ahead till May 2022. It is expected that the new bridge will reduce the travel time from Margao to Chandor by nearly 20 minutes.
It may be recalled that the said bridge had run into major controversy after the villagers of Chandor and Guirdolim had demanded that the bridge be reduced to six meters instead of 12 metres fearing of coal transportationover the bridge.
The bridge is being built by the central and state
government wherein the approach roads are built by the state government, which got delayed.
As informed by the sources the bridge over the railway tracks has been completed by the South Western Railways.
