A massive vehicular load will be taken off the Gandhi Setu - work on construction of the approach road of the Kachchi Dargah-Bidupur six-lane bridge has started after the state government acquired 90 per cent of the total land required. It is expected to be complete within four months.
The 22.76km six-lane bridge is essential for road link with north Bihar with Gandhi Setu requiring urgent makeover. The revamp work on the dilapidated Gandhi Setu is likely to start in June.
On Saturday evening, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who also helms the road construction department, inspected the work of the approach road being carried out at Himmatpur village under Rustampur panchayat in Vaishali district. One flank of the six-lane bridge will fall at Himmatpur.
Tejashwi told The Telegraph: "While returning from Raghopur, I inspected the ongoing work of the approach road which has just begun. As you know that this six-lane bridge is my dream project and I do not want to see any delay in the construction of the bridge."
The state government acquired the land under an urgency clause, allowing the administration to do away with several red tapes. In the first nine months of the project, only 10 per cent of the land was acquired. However, after implementing the urgency clause, the state government acquired 80 per cent of land within four months.
The six-lane bridge parallel to the Gandhi Setu is being constructed in an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode. Under the mode, funds are provided by the government and the agency which takes up the work is paid as per the work carried out. It is being built on the engineering procurement construction (EPC) mode. Under an EPC contract, the contractor designs the installation, procures necessary materials and builds the project, either directly or by subcontracting part of the work.
The EPC mode is preferable nowadays to ensure implementation of projects to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty relating to cost and time and with a view to enabling a transparent, fair and competitive rollout of projects. Under the EPC mode, funds are provided by the government and the agency, which takes up the work and is paid as per the work carried out by it.
The bridge will have its northern end near Bidupur in Vaishali district and the southern end at Kachchi Dargah in Patna district.
The Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited (BSRDCL) is the nodal agency of the project and Korean firm Daewoo Engineering and Construction Company is executing the project in a joint venture with L&T India. The construction firm has set up its office in the riverine belt and Tejashwi visited the office set up in Panchayat Bhavan in Vaishali on Saturday.
"The department is trying its level-best to complete the bridge in the stipulated time frame. I will personally visit and monitor the project for its timely completion," said Tejashwi.
The work for constructing the pillars of the bridge will start in April.
A senior BSRDCL official posted at the headquarters in Patna, said: "The actual work of the construction of the bridge will start in April last week or May first week. The work will first start with the construction of pillars. The bridge will be completed in four years."
The total cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 4,988.40 crore. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has given a loan of Rs 3,000 crore and the rest is being provided by the state government. The project requires 312.77 acres of land.
