Expert team visits Gurupriya bridge, suggests redesigning of pillars

Chitrakonda: Following reports of bending of four pillars of pile no-13 of the Gurupriya bridge at Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district, a three-member team visited the site today.

The team led by Dr NC Pal, Executive Engineer, Project Head, Bhubaneswar, Hemant Deo, Architect and Design Engineer, Mumbai and Abhijit Chakraborty, and Designer, Royal Infra, Kolkata visited the site.

Talking to media persons after the visit, Pal said efforts are on to find out a solution within 10-15 days to ensure that there would be no such incident in future.

Asked about the steps the construction company is going to take, Chakraborty said the company has decided to go ahead with the construction of the remaining piles by redesigning the structure so that there would be no such incident in future.

Talking about the findings the team has made, Deo said the design of pile number 11, 12 and 13 are the same.

“Since four pillars of pile-13 have bended, the construction company has to redesign its structure. My job will be to scrutinise the structure,” he added.

Stating that construction of bridges in the deep waters in reservoirs and rivers is always a big challenge for any construction company, Deo said it will take at least 1-2 weeks to replace the four bend pillars with new pillars with a new design.

With the completion, the bridge will connect 152 cut-off villages of Chitrakonda block.