NHAI’s Rs 100 crore Chakki bridge protection work raises concern after wall damage

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had constructed a check dam and two protection walls to streamline the river course of the Chakki rivulet and to protect the eroding pillars of the interstate Chakki Bridge at Kandwal in Nurpur over one year ago. However, a small protection wall having a length of around 100 meters has been damaged, and its fragments have washed away in the flooded rivulet. The damage of the wall within 15 months has put a question mark on the efficacy and the quality of construction work undertaken by NHAI through a highway construction company.

A threat looms large over the safety measures taken for saving the bridge pillars by NHAI after the short span of existence of the small protection wall built in the downstream of the rivulet. NHAI had spent about Rs 100 crore to protect this interstate highway bridge on the Pathankot-Mandi highway (NH-154) by constructing a check dam and two (small and large) protection walls to protect the dam. The large protection wall is 335 meters long, 12 meters high, and 1.5 meters broad.

Experts say that after the damage of the small protection wall, the existence of the large wall and check dam has also come under threat as the strong current of river floods can damage it in the coming days. Significantly, the safety measures of Chakki bridge pillars had been undertaken by constructing a check dam and two protection walls by NHAI after recommendations and design provided by experts from IIT-Roorkee. A team from IIT-Roorkee had examined the eroding bridge pillars and suggested this technical protection work.

The bridge had been closed for traffic movement in August 2022 after a massive flash flood triggered by illegal unabated mining, which had exposed its two pillars, P1 and P2. The rivulet had changed its course toward the two eroded pillars, posing a threat to the bridge. IIT-Roorkee had extended expert opinion for stabilising the rivulet’s course in the event of flash floods. The bridge had been opened for passenger transport vehicles after over 19 months of closure on March 28, 2024, whereas it was opened for all types of transport-loaded vehicles on June 21 last year after 22 months following inspections of the protective measures by an experts’ team from IIT-Roorkee.

Earlier, NHAI had carried out protection work around the eroded Chakki bridge pillars and tried to divert the course of the Chakki rivulet, but intriguingly, the entire material used in strengthening the pillars with cemented garlanding had been washed away within a few months. After this unsuccessful bid, NHAI had sought expert opinion from IIT-Roorkee and spent Rs 100 crore on the construction of protection walls along with a check dam for saving the eroded pillars.

Vikas Surajewala, Project Director, NHAI, Palampur, said that the damaged small protection wall would pose no threat to the large protection wall and check dam, and repair of the damaged portion of the wall would be done as soon as the monsoon ends.