Observing that communication links between north and south Bihar may be disrupted due to critical condition of two bridges over River Ganga, state Road Construction Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh slammed the Centre for lack of maintenance of the structures.
"Communication links between north and south Bihar may shut soon due to deteriorating condition of the Gandhi Setu and Rajendra Setu," he said.
While movement of heavy vehicles with ten wheels or more have been banned on the Rajendra Setu (road-cum-rail bridge) in Mokama since last year due to its bad shape, the Gandhi Setu connecting Patna with Hajipur has reached a more perilous condition as tilt has appeared on two spans (P-34 and P-35) in its eastern lane recently, Singh said.
Vehicular movement may come to a halt on the Gandhi Setu if the tilt deepens further, he said adding, the western lane has remained restricted for traffic for years due to repair works being carried out at different stretches on the 5.45 km long bridge.
Passing the buck to the Centre for the bad shape of the two bridges connecting north and south Bihar, he said the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways headed by Nitin Gadkari would be responsible if traffic movement was disrupted.
With Rajendra Setu being a property of the Railways, the minister slammed the Railway Ministry for its lackadaisical attitude to undertake repair of the lane meant for road users.
Singh also hit out at the Centre over non-maintenance of National Highways and demanded reimbursement of Rs 970 crore which the Bihar government had spent on their maintenance in 2006.
Stating that the JD(U) government was mulling to undertake repairing of the highways from its own funds, he said a three-member committee comprising the NHAI Chief Engineer, Managing Director of Bihar Pul Nirman Nigam and the Chief Engineer (South Bihar) has been constituted to find out the feasibility and submit a report at the earliest.
The minister added decks have been cleared for construction of two river bridges, one on the Ganga (Sultanganj-Aguwani) and another on the Gandak at Banpara ghat for which NABARD has agreed to provide loans.
