Mandi
A French company will explore the possibility of restoring the much-hyped Bhootnath double-lane bridge in Kullu for bigger vehicles. However, since a year, the bridge has been kept open for the movement of small vehicles. The engineers and designers of the company will explore the possibility of the bridge being safe for the movement of large vehicles or what can be done to fix it, so the engineers of the company have reached Kullu to study the bridge, and now the designer is waiting. It is reported that in a couple of days, the designers will also reach Kullu and the study of the bridge will be started.
Although the same French company was given the task of fixing the bridge earlier and after a long struggle, the company did the work of fixing the bridge with its own technology, but it did not fit in the company’s technology, due to which the pillar had to be given near the bridge joint. After this, the behavior of the bridge has completely changed. It was not considered safe for large vehicles. A year ago, it was decided to restore the bridge for small vehicles, and it has started as an experiment. Now, after the study of the company’s engineers and designers, it will be known whether this bridge is safe for the movement of large vehicles or not.
The Rs 10 crore bridge was closed for vehicular traffic five years after it was completed. Since then, work has been going on to repair the bridge. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid on May 11, 2005. Although the construction of the bridge was targeted to be completed by 2008, due to the laxity of the contractor, the construction of the bridge was completed in 2013. In such a situation, the bridge was completed after 8 years, but after 5 years of inauguration, the bridge was closed for large vehicles from December 2017.
The Bhootnath bridge caved in at the end of 2017 and developed cracks at both ends. To repair the bridge, which was declared unsafe after cracks and bends, a budget provision of Rs 2.68 crore was made by the government, and the work of repairing it was given to M / s Francinet Menard Company based in Noida, France. Even after almost 2 years, the company could not completely fix it. Finally, when the bridge was tested, it was found to be unsafe, due to which the bridge has been kept on observation since 2023.
