Ramban, Jan 16: The Ramban district administration Sunday asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to furnish the safety certificate of the suspension bridge over River Chenab.
District Magistrate Ramban sought the safety certificate of the suspension bridge over River Chenab in Ramban from Regional Officer NHAI, Jammu besides immediately strengthening the bridge by repair rehabilitation.
During the closure of the highway at Mehar, NHIA had replaced the bridge as an alternate route for LMVs.
District Magistrate Ramban Mussarat Islam vide letter No DCR/PS-Camp/683-89 invited the attention of the Regional Officer NHAI, Jammu in the backdrop of the series of communications exchanged between NHAI and 35 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) following the issuance of record note of the meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary vide endorsement No PS/CS/2021/320-S dated July 26, 2021.
This communication was made given the heavy rains witnessed from January 7 to 8, 2022, that led to continuous land sliding and shooting stones at Mehar, Ramban, blocking vehicular traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) between Jaswal Bridge and Cafeteria Morh.
However, the movement of Kashmir and Jammu-bound LMVS including heavily-loaded passenger vehicles was allowed across Jhoola Bridge from Maitra side in large numbers.
Over time, the capacity of the 1964-laid Jhoola Bridge has reduced to 5-ton in 2015 which means only one light motor vehicle (LMV) can pass through the bridge at a time.
However, it is humanly impossible to man the movement of such a large number of vehicles across the bridge.
The bridge has been declared unsafe by 35 BRTF.
Despite this, NHAI is using it as an alternate route to allow thousands of LMVs and passenger vehicles to pass through the Maitra side following the closure of NH-44 at Mehar.
The District Magistrate asked the Regional Officer NHAI to immediately strengthen the Jhoola bridge by repair and rehabilitation in terms of the regional managers letter issued vide No NHAI/RO-Jammu/2015/1107/R-B/449 dated July 26, 2021, a copy of which was also endorsed to District Magistrate Ramban’s office.
The District Magistrate also asked the Regional Officer NHAI, Jammu to provide a copy of the safety certificate issued by their consultants as had been conveyed orally by the management of NHAI from time to time where it had been stated that Jhoola Bridge was safe for vehicular traffic.
“In case of any untoward incident that might arise due to movement of thousands of LMVS and passenger vehicles over the bridge, the responsibility for any such incident would entirely rest with the Regional Officer NHAI Jammu office,” the communication reads.