Eight bridges in planning stage
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs construction of a 5.634 km long new 4-lane bridge across river Ganga and 14.5 km road in Bihar. It would cost Rs.2,926.42 crore and completed in three-and-a-half year by January 2023.
The 14.5-km long road passes through Patna, Saran and Vaishali districts, and the 5.634-km bridge will be parallel to the existing old MG Setu bridge, said the committee in a media release on 17 Dec 2018.
The project includes four Vehicular Underpasses (VUPs), one Rail Over Bridge (RoB), 1.58 km viaduct, 110-meter long one flyover, four minor bridges, five bus shelters and 13 road junctions.
The bridge location is 38 meters on upstream side of the existing MG Setu, along with approaches from km 0/0 to km 14.500 on NH-19 at Patna.
The existing 4-lane (2x7m only) old M G Setu is an important bridge across river Ganga connecting north Bihar with its capital city of Patna besides facilitating the movement of traffic from Nepal, East UP, North Bihar and North Bengal to Patna, South Bihar and Jharkhand.
The new bridge would provide for an arrangement of 8-lane movement of traffic and ease traffic congestion on MG Setu.
In addition, this project of new bridge will generate direct employment of about 20.94 lakh mandays during construction.
It is worth a mention that there were only 13 bridges on river Ganges between Allahabad to Farakka before May’ 2014.
Five of the 20 new bridges have been opened to traffic, seven are under construction and eight are planned.
Work bridges at Farakka, Sahebganj, Mokamah and Phaphamau is likely to start very soon. fiinews.com
