Ganderbal, Apr 14: As a major breather for the commuters travelling on the Srinagar-Leh Highway, a two-lane steel arch truss bridge at Wayil area of Ganderbal district has been completed and is likely to be thrown open for traffic on Sunday.
The bridge would be first of its kind in Kashmir. The officials said that the bridge is being opened to ease out traffic movement, adding that the present single-lane steel bridge is causing frequent traffic snarls due to which the commuters are facing inconvenience. They said that the date for the formal inauguration of the bridge will be decided later.
Executive Engineer Public Works Department (R&B) Ganderbal, Tatheer Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that the newly constructed Wayil bridge will be opened for traffic from Sunday. " We have to do macdamisation of the patch for approach road after two weeks and till then the traffic movement will be allowed.The date for formal inauguration will be decided by the higher authorities, " he said.
He said that the decision to allow traffic has been taken in view of the traffic snarls at Wayil.
Pertinently, The present single-lane steel bridge over the nallah Sindh near Wayil connecting Srinagar with Ladakh is causing frequent traffic halts. The single-lane bridge was constructed over two decades ago by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) after the old wooden bridge was damaged due to floods in 1992.
The frequent traffic snarls due to the one-way bridge over the nallah Sindh near Wayil are causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters travelling on the Srinagar-Leh highway. Tourists use this bridge to visit several famous tourist and pilgrim destinations including Sonamarg, Naranag, and Amarnath shrine. Besides, thousands of people travel on this route every day.
A few years back, the World Bank sanctioned the construction of a vital bridge at Wayil over the nallah Sindh. The construction of the bridge was a long-pending demand of the locals as it was the only link connecting Srinagar with Leh.
Chief Engineer R&B Kashmir, Rafiq Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that the two-lane bridge had been approved at the cost of Rs 23.79 crore. He said the bridge would be first-of-its-kind in Kashmir.
He said that the bridge had an arch-type steel girder with a good foundation design spanning 110 meters and a width of 10.50 meters while the length of the approach roads is 330 meters.. Officials told Greater Kashmir that keeping in view the importance of this prestigious project, Principal Secretary R&B Shailender Kumar, was monitoring the work and getting regular reviews from the officials.
