Minister Incharge of Power AT Mondal on Tuesday the Government will go for the retrofitting of Umiam Bridge to strengthen its existing structure. The Power Minister along with experts from IIT Guwahati inspected the Umiam Dam following concerns were raised on the safety of Umïam Dam Bridge.
Speaking to reporters in Shillong, Mondal stressed on the need to conduct testing to know the exact position of the Umiam Bridge.
“On physical verification everything seems to be very ok, there is no problem but still we have decided that the IIT should take measures to check applying all the latest measures to check and see the exact position of the bridge and those can be only done through proper testing and all these,” the Power Minister said.
“Very soon we will be doing the testing, after testing is over and the recommendation we get, we will be going for retrofitting, we will change the bearing of the bridge,” he added.
The Minister also informed that a company has been roped in through proper bidding , “….now people will go to the company to see the testing procedure and the bridge will be closed for 3 to 6 hours on a particular date, we are yet to fix the date. That day the traffic will be diverted through some other routes. Next day they can go but the heavy vehicles will be completely restricted, but small vehicles can move when the retrofitting is done,” Mondal said.
It may be mentioned that the safety audit conducted last year on the Umiam Dam Bridge found that the vibration caused by the vehicular movement was within limits. However, now the Government is going in depth to find the details about this bridge.