NHAI speeds up repair of Chakki bridge

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, January 13

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) with technical support from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, has speeded up the work to repair the strategic Chakki rivulet bridge, which links Punjab to Himachal, on the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway.

Railways yet to start work

The NHAI has taken up restoration work on a war footing but the Railways is yet to start repair of its bridge pillars. Vikas Surjewala, Project Director, NHAI

The bridge was closed for traffic on August 23 last year after the foundation of its two support pillars were exposed due to riverbed erosion during the last monsoon. Since then heavy vehicles are being diverted via Damtal, taking a 15-km detour.

Vikas Surjewala, Project Director, NHAI, says the Chakki bridge runs parallel to the 90-year-old railway bridge that was damaged by floods. However, till date, the Railways has not repaired or reconstructed the pillars of its bridge. He says unless the Railways reconstructs the pillars of its bridge along with a retaining wall, the highway bridge will again get damaged during the monsoon. The NHAI has time and again taken up the matter with the Railways, but without success.

Surjewala says, “If the Railways constructs a retaining wall along its bridge, it will check large-scale soil erosion during the rainy season and protect both the bridges. The NHAI has taken up restoration work on a war footing but the Railways is yet to start repair of its bridge pillars. The Railways must repair its bridge and construct a protection wall before monsoon.”

He says the riverbed near the pillars has eroded by five to seven metres, exposing their foundations beyond the permissible level. He adds that the NHAI has deployed a number of technical experts along with heavy machinery and efforts have been intensified to repair pillar number 1 and 2 before the monsoon without causing damage to the bridge.

The Kangra district administration had ordered a magisterial probe by the Additional District Magistrate into the collapse of the railway bridge last year. Rail traffic on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar narrow gauge track was also suspended in July last year.