Repair work on ancient bridge hits a snag

Commuters face hardships due to months-long-closure of vital link between Cantt and city

RAWALPINDI:

The restoration work of the 118-year-old railway bridge that collapsed near Transit Camp Chowk in August last year has hit unexpected delay after its rehabilitation project was inaugurated just three weeks ago.

Sources said the staff of the Pakistan Railways’ Engineering Department could not repair the embankment of the bridge due to which the restoration work was moving at a snail’s pace.

Minister for Environment and Parliamentary Affairs, Muhammad Basharat Raja formally inaugurated the Transit Camp Chowk railway bridge rehabilitation and road repair project for Rs40 million on December 18, 2022.

According to sources, the closure of the bridge for the last four months is causing severe hardships to millions of citizens of the garrison city who find it extremely difficult to travel a long distance before entering into the main areas of the cantonment from the city, using alternate routes.

The century-old bridge, which connects the city to the main areas of the cantonment, was badly affected by the heavy traffic and severe damage was caused to its main structure in August 2022 following which the PR administration closed the bridge for all types of traffic until repair.

The PR administration had announced that the work to repair the bridge would be completed in two weeks. However, later the restoration of the bridge for traffic was postponed till the construction of the road.

The PR administration was of the view that the RCB administration's indifferent attitude is the main reason why the bridge is closed to traffic. The highway passing through the railway overhead bridge is not owned by the railway administration but by the RCB.

The railway administration had written a letter to the RCB attributing the repair of the bridge to the repair of the road, according to which the road will be repaired by the RCB while the bridge will be repaired by the Engineering Department of the Pakistan Railways.

The matter remained pending between the two institutions for three months.

Finally, the Punjab government, seeing the hardships of the citizens, released funds of Rs40 million for the reconstruction of the road along with the repair of the bridge.

Provincial minister Raja Basharat also officially inaugurated the project on December 18 last year, after which the local contractor immediately demolished all the highways adjacent to Transit Camp Chowk.

On the other hand, the repair work of the main infrastructure of the railway bridge has been delayed, increasing the woes of millions of commuters. Talking to The Express Tribune, Muhammad Junaid, a resident of Dhok Rata, said: “My children study in the cantonment area and the only way to enter it from Dhok Rata is the railway bridge which has been closed for the last four months.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2023.