Surat civic body files compliance report on bridges to state govt following HC order

With a total of 124 bridges, Surat has the highest number of bridges in the state in a municipal corporation area and will be adding two more soon while six have been proposed, as per officials.

The data collected by the Surat Civic body has been divided into four categories: bridges that do not require repair work, those that need minor repair work, those that need major repair work but can be used, and bridges that need to be closed for public use immediately.

No bridges have been listed in the last category.

Of the 30 bridges falling in the third category, a work order has been given to the agencies for four bridges – Makkai bridge (Connecting Nanpura to Adajan), Sumul Dairy Railway overbridge, Amroli bridge on Tapi River (connecting Nana Varachha to Mota Varachha). The bridges witness massive traffic daily with lakhs of commuters dependent on them.

Surat Municipal Commissioner Shalini Agrawal told The Indian Express, “As per the survey report, 68 bridges fall in the first category, 19 bridges in second, 30 bridges in third, and no bridge in the fourth category. We have shared data on 117 bridges —that are in public use — with the state government. We have come to know that no municipal corporations across the state had completed such preliminary survey work of bridges or submitted their data. We also shared details about planning work to be done on the bridges which requires major repair work. The second (post-monsoon) survey of these 124 bridges has been started and it will take a couple of months to get finished. The remaining seven bridges are presently not in use.”

The SMC had sent a proposal to the standing committee to grant permission to appoint expert agencies to carry out a structural stability survey on the existing 124 bridges in the city. After this, firms from Ahmedabad and Vadodara were hired. The report was submitted to after two months. SMC bridge cell Executive engineer Jayang Ramjiwala said, “The work order has been given for the repairing of four bridges and most probably, the work will be completed in the next six months.”