Work to begin soon on Rs 50,000 crore bridge projects: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The government will soon start work on about Rs 50,000-crore projects that include overhauling of British-era bridges and construction of road overbridges and underpasses at unmanned railway crossings, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said.

"There are about 1,500 dilapidated bridges across the nation that date back to the pre-Independence era. We are going to construct these with new technologies at an estimated Rs 30,000 crore," Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said while interacting with the media here.

That apart, under the government's Setu Bharatam project, which will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 208 road overbridges (ROB) and underpasses will be come up in the first phase at an estimated cost of Rs 10,200 crore.

Tender for 62 such ROBs and underpasses have already been received, he said.

Besides, Rs 5,500-crore projects are in the pipeline for West Bengal under the Setu Bharatam project, and a four-lane bridge has been proposed on the Ganga, besides 22 ROBs and underpasses.

According to Gadkari, the bridge construction code is also being modernised with international specifications and pre-cast technology, and 25 pre-cast fabrication industrial zones are on the anvil for construction of such bridges.

Such bridges will lead to cost savings to the tune of 30 per cent and subsequent quality improvement.

The government is planning to use these pre-fabricated structures in metro, buildings of low-cost houses and states, he said.
Gadkari further said that the government had already created a platform to procure cement where already 95 lakh tonne has been procured and this can be used in bridges etc.

The government has decided to launch 'Setubharatam' project to make all National Highways railway crossing-free by the year 2019, the minister said.

The government is planning to promote waterways in a big way and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) offered states to do the dredging of rivers free of cost and the sand can be used by NHAI in construction of highways, he added.

The planning is also to construct barrages on rivers in order to ensure adequate supply of water for irrigation purposese, Gadkari said.

Adequate availability of water would result in better irrigation to 80 lakh hectares of land, he said adding that the bridges-cum-barrages would hold 3 meter water level.