By: Zubair Qureshi/IANS
Srinagar: The New Year will bring joy to the people of Ganderbal district as the first of its kind arch-truss bridge under construction in the district will be dedicated to the public in the beginning of the year.
According to Tathir Manzoor, executive engineer in the Public Works Department, 90 per cent of the construction work for the bridge has been completed and the remaining work will be completed in the first month of the New Year.
“Currently, we have completed 90 per cent of the work and the remaining 10 per cent will be completed before the scheduled date in the month of January 2023,” he said.
He added that the bridge is a fast of its kind in North India. Stating that it is the first arch-truss girder bridge, Manzoor said that a trial of the bridge will be conducted in January after which it will be brought into file shape.
It should be noted that due to the one-way nature of the bridge on Sindh Nallah, the traffic is often disrupted due to which the passengers travelling on the Srinagar-Leh highway are facing a lot of trouble.
Tourists use this bridge to visit several famous tourist and pilgrimage sites, including Sonamarg, Naranag and Amarnath shrine.
The local people have been demanding the construction of this bridge over the Sindh canal for a long time. Earlier, it became a headache for pilgrims to cross the Indus canal for pilgrimage to the famous tourist spots of Sonamarg, Naranag and Amarnath, as only one vehicle at a time can pass through the already constructed bridge there.
This bridge under construction in the district is the first bridge in Kashmir with a length of 110 metres. A footpath for pedestrians is also being constructed on both sides of this arch-truss bridge built at a height of 10 metres from Sindh Nallah.
A tender was allotted for the construction of this bridge in 2018 at a cost of Rs 23.79 million by the World Bank and the official work on it started in 2020.
