The strategic Alam Bridge sustained damage on Thursday evening when a heavily loaded truck was passing over it. The truck was heading to Rawalpindi from Skardu when it got stuck in the middle of the bridge, leaving the driver and his colleague in a precarious situation.
The two men reportedly jumped off the vehicle to save their lives and made it safely across the bridge. Later, the truck was removed with the help of engineers from the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) which is responsible for the bridge’s maintenance.
“Thankfully, no loss of life occurred,” said a police official on Saturday, adding the bridge was immediately closed for traffic to prevent any mishap.
According to travellers, vehicles heading to Gilgit and other parts of the country from Baltistan were stopped near Alam Bridge and the drivers were told to return or wait for resumption of traffic on the crossing.
“This was bound to happen because the bridge wasn’t fit to cater to the needs of so many areas for such a long time,” said Farman Ali, a resident of Baltistan, which includes Skardu, Ghanche and Shigar among other towns and has a population of over 300,000 people.
“This is the only bridge linking Baltistan to the country and I think it should have been replaced with a reinforced concrete bridge a long time ago,” he added.
The incident has triggered criticism against Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah’s government which has been accused of mismanagement and corruption in the past.
“The chief minister has disappointed us,” said Baltistan chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Fida Nashad. “This strategic bridge should have been replaced with a better one during the government’s five years. But this did not happen,” Nashad said.
An FWO spokesperson in Gilgit told The Express Tribune repair work has begun and traffic would be resumed soon. “Engineers have begun repairing the bridge and we are hopeful it would be fit for traffic within the next 24 hours,” said the spokesman.
Built with a combination of iron rods and wood over Gilgit River, Alam Bridge is one of the longest bridges in G-B measuring about 300 metres in length. In view of its safety, FWO staff is deployed at the bridge to ensure vehicles don’t pass it at dangerous speeds. In addition, trucks and other loaded vehicles weighing more than 20 tonnes are not allowed to pass.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2014.
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Baltistan is the most important strategic region of Pakistan as well as the tourism centre of Pakistan. But unfortunately the government of Pakistan is continuously ignoring the region in all aspects of life. The world's second largest peak K2 and Saichan galaciar is also located in the region. Baltistan is a very important region for Pakistan in several ways. We the people of Baltistan are specially ignored by the government of Pakistan. Neither the roads of Baltistan nor the bridges of Baltistan region are in good conditions to be used. There is not a single medical or engineering university in this region. We are raising our voice for our rights from 67 years but no one from the Pakistani assembly is accepting us as a Pakistani. Our peoples sacrifice for the country is known to everyone and throughout the country admitted our sacrifices ; but never ever supported nor raised their voice for the regions constitutional rights. I strongly condemned the statement of information minister of federal government regarding Gilgit Baltistan. I appeal to the army chief and prime minister of Pakistan to support our cause and accepted us and treated us as a Pakistani. We were the part of Pakistan we are part of Pakistan and we will remain the part of Pakistan. Long live Pakistan long live Baltistan.
It shows the negligence of federal government as well as the provincial government. We want justice in every matter.
Niswar time brother!
@AB:
I stand by what I said as it is my profession.
shame for mehdi shah
@Saleem: Well slow down. Firstly the bridge could have been properly designed as it served for so long including increasing number of traffic. Of course you can not factor in traffic needs for "infinite" future, that would make it too costly. The bridge was damaged due to lack of maintenance or additional bridge to meet people's needs. We just love to jump to crucifying, don't we?
It is very odd that this bridge was built for traffic and one truck damaged it. Utter nonsense. Either the bridge was not designed for traffic, and if it was then why it got damaged by one truck - regardless of overload. While designing a bridge, there is always a safety factor and this is just not acceptable. Someone needs to be crucified here for his negligent.