Busiest Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Bridge gets closed

Visakhapatnam : Vehicular traffic has come to a halt at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Bridge (parallel bridge) near the Naval Dock Yard.

Owing to the closure of the busiest route, thousands of employees and other commuters, who have been plying over it on a daily basis, are now a troubled lot as they have to travel a few kilometres extra.

Malkapuram traffic police and private security guards have taken measures to prevent the movement of any vehicles or people over the bridge.

Private security guards are standing on the way to the godown and guiding motorists to take the alternative route as the dock yard bridge remains closed. To make it apparent, a container trailer was parked on the road near the bridge to stop the vehicle movement.

Due to the closure of the bridge, the employees staying in the dockyard quarters in the city vacated their houses a month ago and shifted to the quarters located at Scindia.

Officials say that a Gujarat based company will commence the construction work of this bridge soon at an estimated cost of Rs.23 crore. The construction works are supervised by the Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) engineering officials. The bridge construction work will start after demolishing it.

Earlier, representatives of CSIR-SERC had carried out field investigations, load tests etc. They observed that the bridge had a very low rating and suggested that the load on the bridge was required to be restricted to only light motor vehicles and no heavy vehicles like trucks, buses, etc., should be permitted to ply over the bridge.

Keeping the risk factor in view, the VPA provided necessary height gauge and signage on either side of the bridge to restrict movement of heavy vehicles.

Employees working in industries such as Hindustan Shipyard Ltd, Eastern Naval Command Headquarters, Naval Dock Yard travel via bridge along the route in the morning and evening hours.

Along with them, thousands of people from Malkapuram, Nausena Bagh, Sriharipuram areas travel to major areas like Convent junction, railway station, RTC complex, among others. Currently, with the closure of the bridge, motorists have to travel an additional six to seven kilometers to take the alternative route. Will this route be opened in future or close for good has now become a big question mark.