Safety audit revealed that 36 bridges in Uttarakhand are not fit for running!

Taking seriously the Morbi cable bridge accident in Gujarat, safety audit of dilapidated bridges was also conducted in Uttarakhand. There has been a big disclosure in this safety audit. According to the report, there are 3262 bridges in Uttarakhand, out of which 2518 bridges have been audited. In these, the figure of bad and dangerous bridges has come to 36. That is, there are 36 such bridges in the state, through which people were passing and they could have become victims of an accident at any time. Actually, safety audit is talked about every year during disaster in Uttarakhand, but after the Morbi bridge accident, the state government decided to conduct safety audit of all bridges in Uttarakhand. Which the PWD department has almost completed in a month. It has been found in the audit that 36 bridges in Garhwal and Kumaon are in a dilapidated condition. Passing through these bridges is not free from danger. One of these bridges has also been found unsafe on the national highway.

According to the information received from the Chief Engineer of Lonivi, out of these 36 bridges, 16 bridges in Pauri are unsafe. Whereas, 1 bridge in Pithoragarh, 5 in Udham Singh Nagar, 3 in Haridwar, 8 in Tehri, 1 in Dehradun, 1 in Chamoli while 1 bridge in Rudraprayag is very dangerous. Now an action plan is being prepared for the repair of these bridges. According to Principal Secretary PWD RK Sudhanshu, instructions have been given to stop traffic and movement on all these bridges. Alternative arrangements are being made for them. He has said that through the scheme with ADB and World Bank, the work of their repair will be done. Work has also started in this direction. All unsafe bridges will be repaired in the coming time.

Let us inform that every year during the disaster in Uttarakhand many bridges get destroyed. Along with this, even today in hilly areas, the support of these suspension bridges is taken to reach from one village to another or from village to city. On which the villagers travel risking their lives.