A year after CWG,collapsed overbridge to be rebuilt

The Delhi government has given its approval for the construction of two foot overbridges near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The Delhi government has given its approval for the construction of two foot overbridges (FOBs) near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The decision had been pending for almost a year now after one of these FOBs had collapsed days before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The FOBs will now be ready by February 2012,said Public Works Department officials.

We have got approval from the government to go ahead with the construction. The suspender design that will be used has also been approved. Since the arch-shaped bridge of a similar design is already being constructed at Ghazipur,the same company providing the suspender for the Ghazipur project may be roped in to provide the suspender system for FOBs near JLN Stadium also, said a senior PWD official. The civic agency has procured suspenders and bars for the Ghazipur project from Freyssinet Limited.

A total of three arch-shaped FOBs will be constructed at Ghazipur and are likely to be ready by next month. The PWD claims that it modified the construction module this time and first created support and then constructed the arch and deck.

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We might ask either Freyssinet Limited or VSL to provide the suspenders for the FOBs to be constructed near JLN. This will be decided shortly. Thereafter,the suspender will take a month to be shipped to India. The FOBs will be put together in a months time after that,since the decks for one of the bridges is ready, said an official. The cost of procuring a new suspender system will be borne by the contractors responsible for this project and may cost around Rs 20 lakh,according to sources.

The overall cost of this project is estimated at Rs 10 crore. According to PWD officials,the government is not going to spend any extra money on the project as the contractor will also have to bear the cost of reconstructing the deck.

The 85-metre-long,under-construction FOB had collapsed on September 21,2010,after the pin of one of the 26 suspenders that connected the walkway of the bridge with the arch had snapped. Around 27 people were injured in the incident,which was a cause of major embarrassment in the run-up to the Games.

The PWD said the faulty suspender system had led to the collapse. The collapse took place as the suspenders holding the deck from an arched frame gave way. We have,therefore,taken our time to finalise the design this time, said an official.

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