Rajendra Setu. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Road access to districts on the other side of the Ganga would soon turn out to be difficult with year-long repairs being planned for Rajendra Setu.

With the government declaring that Gandhi Setu may be closed any day, the traffic flow on Rajendra Setu, near Hathidah, around 100km east of Patna, is all set to be affected from December 1.

The government has given its approval to the railways’ proposal to make the 57-year-old road-cum-rail bridge “one-way” to carry out repairing work on the road part. The decision was taken during a meeting held between senior officials from East Central Railway (ECR) and road construction department on Wednesday.

At least 12-inch tilt has been observed in the 34th and 35th pillar of Gandhi Setu, already crumbling under traffic pressure, posing threat of snapping connectivity between north and south Bihar.

Confirming the approval given on one-way vehicular movement on the bridge, road construction department principal secretary Arun Kumar Singh said: “We have agreed to the request of ECR to allow only one-way movement on Rajendra Setu. For this, we would send a team of our engineer for site inspection. The approach road to the bridge from either side is abnormally narrow, so our engineers would assess the points from where the one-way traffic movement is to be started.”

Vehicles would be allowed to move from end for a certain period of time, when traffic from the other side would remain blocked. This system would be undertaken vice-versa from either side.

The 2-km bridge carrying a two-lane road and single railway tracks was inaugurated by first President Rajendra Prasad in 1957.

Deliberating on the extent of damage to the bridge, a senior engineer in the bridge line of the ECR’s Danapur division said: “The railway tracks run on the lower deck and the road is on the upper deck. It is the steel structure underneath the road deck, which has severely damaged and requires immediate repair.”

The railways have already selected Calcutta-based firm Ravatson Engineers Private Limited to undertake the required retrofitting works on the damaged steel structure. “The bidding process was completed by November 11 and we had sent the proposal for one-way traffic movement on the bridge soon after it. The repair work is expected to take around 12 months to complete utilising funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore,” said Arvind Kumar Rajak, central public relations officer, ECR.

In the event of government declaration of non-plying of vehicles on Gandhi Setu, people have only option to enter north Bihar through Rajendra Setu but making it one-way is all set cause long queues of traffic at both ends of the bridge.

Heavy vehicles on Rajendra Setu, which is a rail-cum-road bridge, are already not allowed to ply, at present due to its poor condition.

On the need of making one-way movement on the bridge, the ECR engineer said: “In order to do retrofitting works on the steel structure underneath the road, we need to rip off the concrete material from the deck. This would be done in patches, so that vehicular movement could be allowed from one side and repair work could also be done simultaneously. Once the retrofitting work is done, we would again construct the concrete road on the deck.”

The bridge was the only lifeline connecting south and north Bihar till 1982, when Gandhi Setu in Patna was opened to public.

It has been the lifeline of the railways too as most of the passenger trains pass through this bridge.