Team Herald
PANJIM: Taking strong exception to comments by GPCC president Girish Chodankar, PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar said that the Zuari bridge is safe for vehiclular traffic and the Congress must not create unnecessary panic in the minds of the people.
Dhavalikar said that PWD engineers are periodically monitoring the condition of the bridge. “There were issues with Piers 5 and 6 which have been addressed in 2006 and there is no problem now,” Dhavalikar said.
He said cantilever technology was outdated about 20 years ago and the Congress did nothing to build a new bridge or maintain the existing. “Since I have been the PWD Minister the engineers are regularly monitoring the situation. Experts from IIT Bombay and elsewhere are also assisting our team in monitoring the condition,” he added.
He said the letter which Chodankar had got his hands on was addressed to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. “For any maintainance work we have to take permissions from the MoRTH. The letter was written for carrying out repair works nothing else. Zuari bridge is absolutely fine for regular use,” he said.
He said that last year upon inspections the government also allowed the movement of buses up to 16.5 tonnes on the bridge keeping public interest in mind.
Dhavalikar said once the new bridge comes up in December 2019, the old bridge will be re-constructed for light vehicle use. “This is just at the planning stage. We will study the Patna bridge where they used the same technology and take a decision,” he said.
GPCC on Sunday had demanded that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar should come clear and declare whether Piers 4 and 5 of the bridge are safe or have developed cracks while also asking for an assurance whether he will take the responsibility in case of an collapse. GPCC had also questioned whether the State disaster management team was in place to tackle any incident.
