Partial opening of Ganga bridge delights commuters
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Varanasi: Wait is almost over for Ring Road to become operational as National Highway Authority of India has opened one side of the bridge on Ganga, a three-lane road for light vehicles.
Daily commuters, who used to spend over two hours to reach their destination between Varanasi and Chandauli, will now complete the journey in half an hour. The second lane of the bridge will be complete by Dec, after which heavy vehicle movement will commence.
Under package-II of Ring Road phase-II project, the 27km section, including a Rs 949-crore 1.8km six-lane bridge on Ganga, was proposed. "We have left no stone unturned to ensure at least one side of the bridge with a three-lane road became operational by Jun 1 and we succeeded in completion of western side of the three-lane road on the bridge and work is in progress on eastern side to complete the other three-lane road by Dec," Pankaj Kumar Mishra, NHAI's project director for Varanasi, told TOI on Monday.
Except for the bridge, he said, most of the work of package-II was complete. Deadline to complete the bridge was extended repeatedly over past three years, due to which, pressure was mounting on the agency. "We not only made three lanes of western side of the bridge commutable but also opened it for light vehicles," said Mishra, adding that heavy vehicles were not allowed in order to keep traffic manageable as work is in progress on eastern portion.
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Allowing light vehicles has brought relief to thousands, reducing their travel time by up to two hours. "Next target is to finish the work by Dec 31 and make the bridge fully operational," said Mishra.
The deadline for completion of the package was Feb 2022, but it kept extending for reasons ranging from a change in initial diagram of the bridge made after studying flood level to decision to increase length, time period as well as budget of the project.
The height of the bridge is 30 metres to ensure movement was not affected during floods. Covid-induced lockdown, delay in shifting of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd pipeline, high tension wires and other utilities, long spells of flood in Ganga and delay in acquisition of land kept the package-II work incomplete.
Commuters are advised to move with caution on this bridge, starting at Babhanpura in Sandaha area of Varanasi and ends at Sultanipur village in Chandauli, as work is still in progress.
The dividers are being painted. Outer railing on the Ganga bridge is underway and might take up to a fortnight to complete. On the other lane, placing of girders and laying of asphalt is due.
Bridge that crossed several delays
The ring road project was announced in 2000 by then Atal Bihari Vajpayee govt but was given the green light only after BJP-led NDA govt returned to power at Centre in 2014. In 2015, NHAI launched phase-I of the project in the 16.55 km area between Harahua on NH-56 and Sandaha on NH-29.
Phase-I was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Nov 2018. In Oct 2021, the Prime Minister inaugurated the ring road phase-II package-I connecting Varanasi-Allahabad (National Highway-2) and Varanasi-Lucknow (NH-56).
Despite beginning with package-I and repeated extensions in deadline for completion, package-II of the project to connect NH-29 with NH-2 in Chandauli could not be completed. Six more months are sought by NHAI to fully operationalise ring road's package-II.
Connecting districts & neighbouring states
Thousands of vehicles travelling towards Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from Kanpur, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Ballia, Mau, Bhadohi, Mirzapur and Azamgarh will not need to enter the city. This will reduce significantly traffic load on roads leading to the city as well as the Mohansarai-Chandauli bypass.
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