Ludhiana MC floats tenders to reconstruct century-old bridge

Harshraj Singh
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 10

About a decade after an old bridge over the Buddha Nullah was declared unsafe, the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, has finally floated tenders for its reconstruction. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 5.84 crore while the project is supposed to be completed within one year once the work order is issued to a successful bidder.

The bridge, located on Old GT Road, near Chand Cinema, was closed for all kind of vehicles, except two-wheelers, over three months ago while it was earlier closed for heavy vehicles in 2018. The bridge is said to be over 100 years old and it was declared ‘unsafe’ by an engineer of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College here in 2011, as per information.

The bridge was damaged from different points while a number of bricks have fallen from it on the road, with commuters passing underneath it. Its safety walls were also in a dilapidated condition.

MLA Rakesh Pandey had also raised the matter before the MC to reconstruct the bridge. Since its closure for cars and heavy vehicles, the traffic (from the Jalandhar bypass side towards Clock Tower) has been diverted through a nearby bridge.

A Congress leader had given a written complaint to the then MC Commissioner in 2014 about the poor condition of the bridge and demanded to take immediate steps in this regard but to no avail.

In 2016, MC’s Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) had given nod for consultancy for the redesigning of the bridge but the project was delayed again. In 2017 and 2018, officials kept making claims that the bridge would be reconstructed soon. In July 2019, the soil-testing work was started for preparing the design for the reconstruction of the bridge.

In January 2021, MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal had ordered officials to get the design finalised from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College.

A resident, Gaganpreet Singh, said: “The bridge is in a bad condition which is visible. It is a good move if it is reconstructed. The MC should make sure that the work must be completed in a time-bound manner. Transparency should be ensured in the project.”

MC’s Superintending Engineer Teerath Bansal said the tenders had been floated to invite bidders for the reconstruction of the bridge. Technical bids for the project would be opened on May 18 while financial bids will be opened later.

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