Govt to strengthen East-West Highway bridges
KATHMANDU:
Old bridges along East-West Highway is set to be reinforced to keep them in good condition. The government is preparing to strengthen 40 bridges along the highway, which is considered as the lifeline of the country, within the current fiscal year.
The bridges will be strengthened this year under a plan to carry out maintenance of 60 bridges built along different highways and roads. The plan also includes maintenance of four crossings built over Bagmati, Bishnumati and Manahara rivers along the Kathmandu Ring Road.
A majority of the bridges of the East-West Highway have not been repaired for over the last 30 years even as there has been huge rise in vehicular movement. Four months ago, Ratu Bridge in Mahottari collapsed due to lack of maintenance work for a long time. Ratu Bridge will also be renovated, according to the Department of Roads (DoR) that is
responsible for bridge maintenance of Strategic Road Network (SRN).
The department has said that even though there is limited time for the procurement procedure, it will complete strengthening all 60 bridges within the current fiscal year. “We will be speeding up procurement work to achieve the target of maintaining the bridges by this fiscal,” said Arjun Jung Thapa, deputy director general of DoR. He said they have Rs 600-Rs 700 million resources and there will be no shortage of funds if more fund is needed as the World Bank is also supporting the maintenance work under the Bridge Improvement and Maintenance Programme (BIMP).
DoR is preparing to hire consultants who will carry out detailed design for the maintenance of the old bridges. Other bridges that will be strengthened this fiscal year include three bridges of Prithivi Highway that fall in Dhading and Tanahun districts, three bridges of Seti Highway in Doti, one bridge of Banke section of Postal Highway and Mauri Bridge of Mugling-Narayanghat road.
Before the implementation of the BIMP, the government had carried out a study of the bridges that needed maintenance, replacement or upgrading and to determine the locations for building new ones. DoR officials said that under the BIMP, maintenance of bridges is as equally important as the construction of new crossings. An official at DoR said that maintenance of SRN bridges had not received much attention in the past due to the lack of budget and political pressure to fund bridges along rural roads.
BIMP was implemented last year with the support of the World Bank. The project is aimed at carrying out maintenance of around 500 existing bridges on SRN roads within the next four years. By fiscal year 2016-17, the project also targets to build 26 new bridges and complete nearly 100 bridges that are under construction.
In 2012, the World Bank had signed an agreement with the government to provide support of $60 million for five years (2012-13 to 2016-17) for SRN bridge construction and maintenance work under its new lending mechanism of the Project for Result (P4R).
A study of DoR conducted last year had revealed that 98 bridges need urgent maintenance, 230 need major maintenance and 98 need minor maintenance. DoR has a plan to bring almost all bridges in good condition by fiscal year 2016-17.
Source: THT
