The under-construction bridge over the Gobind Sagar at Bagchhal in Bilaspur, on which more than Rs 21 crore has already been spent, may have to be abandoned, apparently due to wrong decisions on the part of engineers of the PWD.

Work on the project, being executed by Gammon India Limited, has been at a standstill since March 2010. During excavation for the second pier of the bridge, the company found that the strata was not the same as that of the first pier as envisaged while designing and lacked the requisite strength to hold the structure.

It sought the advice of the geo-technical department of the IIT, Roorkee, which clearly stated in its report that the construction of the bridge was not safe at the present location, unless safety measures were adopted to strengthen the strata below the pier foundation. Thereafter, the company approached another Mumbai-based consultant, M/s Fugro, for carrying out the underwater survey, which has been completed and boring is on. The strengthening measures will be decided after correlating data from both the reports.

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