New bridge across Godavari at Bhadrachalam to open for traffic by Sri Rama Navami

The bridge construction, which spanned over nine long years, neared completion with minor works pending.

Kothagudem: Good news to residents of erstwhile Khammam district residents, especially the devotees attending Bhadradri Brahmotsavams.

The district administration has planned to open the second high level bridge across river Godavari at Bhadrachalam for vehicular traffic by Sri Rama Navami. The bridge construction, which spanned over nine long years, neared completion with minor works pending.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, district Collector Dr. Priyanka Ala informed that as large numbers of devotees are expected to attend Sri Rama Navami celebrations at Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam it is decided to allow vehicular traffic on the new bridge.

She said that the laying of bitumen layer on the bridge and approach roads has been completed. The railing work of footpaths would be completed soon. The official inauguration of the bridge would take place after the parliament elections are over.

The second bridge was proposed to be built to ease the traffic flow on National Highway 30, a vital road link that connects Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh States as the traffic congestion increased due to increased vehicular flow over the years on the old bridge.

The new bridge, built adjacent to the existing one, is 1.20 kilometres in length and 12 metres in width with 37 piers. The length and number of piers of the new bridge are the same as the old one with a significant addition of wide foot paths on either sides of the bridge.

The new bridge construction was taken by a north Indian company Rajdeep Buildcon Private Limited with an initial estimated cost of Rs 80 crore on engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) basis.

As the agency failed to execute the project as per the schedule National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) gave extensions to the agency several times to complete the project. It took nearly nine years for the agency to complete the project.

It may be noted that the existing high level bridge across the river was constructed in a five year period from 1960 to 1965 with an expenditure of Rs 70 lakh after the foundation was laid on December 16, 1959 by the then AP Chief Minister, Dr. N Sanjeeva Reddy.