The Hindu : Karnataka News : People may use barges to cross the river Sita this monsoon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Others

People may use barges to cross the river Sita this monsoon

Ganesh Prabhu

Barkur Bridge repairs expected to be completed in nine months

A TROUBLED SPOT: A view of the Barkur Bridge and the diversion road in Udupi district.

BARKUR (UDUPI DISTRICT): The people of Barkur and Brahmavar towns would have to travel on a barge this rainy season to reach the other side of the river Sita as repair works on the bridge connecting them would take about nine months to complete.

The collapse of six panels of the Barkur Bridge connecting the historical town of Barkur with Brahmavar town, built in 1970 at a cost of Rs. 12.5 lakhs, has hit the people of the region hard. The bridge has eight panels in all. The remaining two panels are also in a state of near collapse. The bridge collapsed on July 29, 2004, after lorries carrying more than 25 tonnes of iron ores each used it. With the result, neither buses nor autorickshaws could ply over the bridge. School and college students, senior citizens, and agricultural labourers were worst hit because of the closure of the bridge. The buses had to cover an extra 15 kilometres to reach their destination.

Diversion road

The outcry from the people of the two towns, however, forced the authorities to construct a diversion road below the bridge in December 2004. The passengers were saved the trouble of travelling the extra 15 kilometres.

According to the Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department, K. Suresh Shetty, the cost of repairing the bridge has been estimated at Rs. 3 crores. Tenders had been floated in February 2005.

Since the bids were for an amount above Rs. 50 lakhs, it had to follow the two-cover system, which included technical and financial bids. The technical bid had been sent to the Government for its approval in March 2005.

Deck slabs made out of the new pre-stress concrete technology would be used in the repair works of the bridge, whose foundation is still strong. Earlier, the construction had used the RCC. The use of the new technology would allow the bridge to sustain more weight. This would be the first bridge in Udupi district to use the new technology. The Public Works Department would like technical bid to go to the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL) as it helped in faster payment and speedier completion of work. The work would be completed in nine months after approval, which was expected soon, Mr. Shetty said.

Two barges

But in the rainy season, which is expected to start within a month, the diversion road cannot be used. The people would have to have travel in two barges, which would be procured for ferrying the people from one side of the riverbank to the other.

Buses cannot be carried in these barges as there would be less water in the river during the low tides. Mr. Shetty said the Brahmavar MLA, K. Jayaprakash Hegde, was holding talks with the officials of the Department of Ports to get the barges.

The demolition of the bridge would take three months and this work could be taken up in the rainy season, he said.

But the crux of the problem is that the movement of overloaded lorries in the district still continues, despite the fact that a weighbridge has been constructed at Byndoor to check them. The district administration had issued a notification banning the movement of overloaded lorries on the national and State highways in the district on August 12, 2004.

According to the Secretary of Udupi Zilla Nagarika Samiti, Nityananda Volakadu, some overloaded iron ore carrying lorries were dodging the checkpoints and entering the district. If the problem continued, the Samiti would launch an agitation, he said.

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