Gandhinagar, July 13 (IANS) Five days after the devastating bridge collapse over the Mahisagar river in Vadodara, resulting in the death of over a dozen people, the Gujarat government on Sunday gave approval for a new two-lane high-level bridge near Mujpur.

The new bridge will run parallel to the damaged Mujpur-Gambhira bridge over the Mahisagar river and is expected to be completed in the next 18 months. The tendering process for its construction has been initiated by the concerned department.

“A detailed project report was recently prepared by the Roads and Buildings Department after surveying this parallel bridge to the accident-affected structure. It will connect Padra and Anklav,” an official statement said.

Meanwhile, Superintending Engineer N. V. Rathva informed that the existing two-lane Mujpur approach road will be widened to a four-lane road with a width of 7 meters. The 4.2 km stretch from the highway to the bridge will also be expanded to four lanes.

The unfortunate collapse of the existing Mujpur-Gambhira bridge disrupted connectivity between Central Gujarat and Saurashtra and posed challenges for local commuters and students, and this was probably the reason for the Chief Minister to promptly approve the new project, within days of the mishap.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel granted administrative approval to the Roads and Buildings Department for the construction of a new two-lane bridge on Sunday, and the construction work is likely to begin soon after the tendering process.

Earlier in the day, the state government completed the disbursal of Rs 62 lakh in financial assistance to the families of those who died and suffered injuries in the bridge collapse last week.

As per the official data, cheques worth a total of Rs 62 lakh have been distributed till Sunday, which included the families of 15 deceased and four injured.

–IANS

mr/uk