Ramnagar village residents resent tardy pace of work on Chapel Nullah bridge

The building of a vital bridge across Chapel Nullah in Ramnagar Tehsil of Udhampur district is progressing slowly, causing immense hardship to about 70,000-80,000 people living in 15-20 villages.

The work on the project, which started in December 2023, is still far from completion, compelling students to travel across the drain without a bridge and causing immense inconvenience to patients and regular commuters.

According to Parshotam Kumar Joshi, Executive Engineer at PWD Ramnagar, the bridge’s construction is not yet complete. Approaches were being made for the construction. However, due to the rains and landslides, it had developed cracks. Also, the material used to construct the bridge was of poor quality, which caused some of the construction work to be demolished. As per Joshi, the project comes under NABARD and has to be completed in 18 months.

“Bridge’s abutments are made, and the approach work, which had earlier demolished due to rain, is in progress. Even at the time of our visit, we had said not to process it further because the material was not good. During this time, the rain started, due to which cracks appeared in the wall and it fell due to landslide. We have demolished all the poor-quality construction. This project was under NABARD, and it was to be completed in 18 months. We have issued a notice on this and have said to complete the bridge work on time”, Joshi said.

The 40-meter-long steel girder bridge, costing Rs 2.32 crores under NABARD, would link Surni Panchayat through Neeli Jandrore to block headquarters Ghordi in Udhampur. To date, only abutment work has been done, and approach construction work is ongoing.

Heavy rains in recent times triggered a landslide that destroyed the half-finished approach work and developed cracks in the breast walls. After an official inspection, the contractor was directed to demolish the affected structures and begin again.

Locals have accused the contractor of using low-quality materials in the current construction, and department officials issued a warning to the contractor to follow quality standards.