Nitin Gadkari holds the teleconference on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The Centre would undertake comprehensive repair work of Gandhi Setu — the lifeline between Patna and north Bihar.

Union minister of road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari said during a media teleconference on Monday that the Centre had decided to take up the bridge repair work following a request from chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. “The chief minister told me that the state government could not handle the Gandhi Setu repair work as it was a costly affair and requested the Centre to handle it. I have assured him that the Centre would do the needful,” said Gadkari.

The bridge would be handed over to the Centre for the second time this decade for its renovation and development. The Centre had taken the responsibility of repairing the damaged Gandhi Setu at the cost of Rs 800 crore in July 2011. But the state government took the work back from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in June 2012 after the feasibility report was prepared and tender was floated, showing eagerness to complete the repair work from its own resources.

Ever since the state government took the charge of repairing the bridge, the structure turned from bad to worse. The work to overhaul the western flank of the 44th span, including replacement of the superstructure of the stretch, started in December 2013 but the work is still not over.

Gadkari said: “The Centre will start the bridge repair afresh within four months.”

A senior official of NHAI told The Telegraph: “It will take at least year-and-a-half to start the actual work on the Setu and another three years to complete its renovation. First, we shall appoint a consultant and prepare a feasibility report. It will take at least four months. Thereafter, our experts will go through the report and send it to the Centre for clearance, which will take at least another four months.”

The load on 5.575-km-long Gandhi Setu increased drastically after the closure of Rajendra bridge in Mokama in May last year. Located around 100km east of Gandhi Setu, it was an alternative road bridge for crossing the Ganga for going to the north Bihar districts.