Governor Satya Pal Malik has asked the administration to consider the demand for reconversion of Rajbagh footbridge over Jhelum into a motorable bridge, a senior official said.
The official said the Governor passed the direction to theChief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam and senior officials of Public WorksDepartment, JKPCC and traffic department, to examine the demand in order todecongest the traffic flow in southern side of the city.
“It is highly likely that decision in this regard will betaken soon,” the official said adding that the chief secretary would chair ameeting with officials concerned in this regard “soon”.
Recently the Governor had assured Kashmir Chamber ofCommerce and Industries delegation that their demand for reconverting thefootbridge into a motorable one will be considered.
“During our meeting with the Governor, we took up thisissue. He assured that administration will consider our demand positively,”said senior vice president, KCCI, Nasir Khan.
He said they informed the Governor about importance of thisbridge for decongesting the city traffic.
Originally planned for vehicular traffic, it was constructedat whopping cost of Rs 12 core. But the bridge was converted into a footbridgeby the PDP-BJP regime, at the eleventh hour.
An engineer who was involved in the construction of thebridge said there will be no problem in re-converting the bridge into amotorable one.
“It has the foundation of a motorable bridge and its designis also suitable for carrying vehicular traffic,” he said.
“It was a shock to us when at the last moment of finalisingits construction we were asked to make it a footbridge. It meant wastage of Rs12 crore as footbridge construction would cost around Rs 1 to Rs 2 crore.”
Experts and engineers have sought intervention of theGovernor to reconvert the footbridge near Presentation Convent School into amotorable bridge as was initially proposed.
According to a survey carried out by RITES, the120-metre-long bridge with three spans will connect the busy Polo View roadwith Raj Bagh near the School across Jehlum. The bridge will help in reducingthe traffic load on Abdullah Bridge where traffic often jams during peak hours.
The J&K chapter of the Institution of Engineers India(IEI) had also pitched for making the bridge motorable, stating that thegovernment’s decision to convert it into a pedestrian bridge has resulted inwastage of funds.
Engineers from various developmental sectors had alsorecommended that “motorable bridge as per the original proposal should beconstructed with a soffit level of 1589 metres instead of 1590.30 meters.”
An engineer said a motorable bridge was needed to easetraffic congestion in the city.
“This bridge will also act as a rescue platform from theDisaster Management angle and should in any case be reconverted to motorablebridge,” one of them said.