Rly bridge width reduced, Union Transport Ministry questions PWD

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 8

Cutting down the width of a 300 meter long railway overbridge from 11 meter to 7 meter in Faridkot has created a controversy.

After receiving a complaint regarding reduction in the width of this overbridge on National Highway 54, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has asked the Chief Engineer (NH) and the Punjab PWD (B&R) to submit a report about it.

As per the original plan, a 925 meter long and 11 meter wide bridge at the top was to be constructed on Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai road in the town at a cost of Rs 36 crore.

While preparing the drawings and plans for the bridge, the PWD had taken a disputed property as part of its construction plan.

However, with the starting of the construction of the bridge about two year back, the PWD was locked in litigation with the parties in possession of the disputed land. For this reason, construction work on this railway over-bridge project has been in suspension mode for nearly a year.

While the PWD completed over 60 per cent of the bridge, it faced problems in getting possession of the disputed land for the completion of the project. The disputed property is about 27-feet wide and 80-m long strip of land along the Faridkot-Talwandi road.

Due to inordinate delay in the completion of the project, which was supposed to be completed by September this year, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MORTH) had threatened to withdraw itself from the project and asked the state government to complete it at its own cost.

Facing the risk of the MORTH withdrawing itself from the project, the PWD decided to reduce the width of 300 meter long railway overbridge from 11 meter to 7 meter in a hush-hush manner two months back.

As per the new drawings of the bridge, while about 600 meter length of it will be 11 meter wide, 300 meter of its length will be 7 meter wide at the top.

Sources in the PWD revealed that some influential persons, in possession of the disputed land, want the MORTH to acquire their land. Even some business houses were interested in giving their commercial establishments in acquisition to MORTH and the PWD as the value of these properties was set to nosedive after the construction of the bridge.