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Tardy work on railway bridge resented

By Correspondent - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

BADARPUR, Nov 30 - Tardy progress in the construction of the railway bridge over the Barak river at Badarpur Ghat has been widely resented by the conscious section of taxpayers here.

Though the 11 pillars of the bridge have been completed, preliminary work for which began in October 2002, construction of the super structure is still pending. It has been gathered that the NF Railway authority had resolved to entrust the task to Rahi Construction Company and start work in January 2010. However, the reason behind the inordinate delay is yet to be officially ascertained.

Talking to this Correspondent, the deputy engineer of Silchar Railway Construction Department, MK Pande said, �work on the girders will start shortly�.

It may be pertinent to mention here that the 409.08 metre bridge, which on completion will be the longest span between the Lumding-Badarpur hill section, will be the main connecting line of entire Barak Valley, including Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram. The foundation stone of this No. 572 Barak railway bridge was laid on May 19, 2002. During the first phase the railway authority sanctioned an amount of Rs 29.13 crores for the project.

On another front, progress of the broadgauge line construction work between Lumding-Badarpur hill section too has been unsatisfactory, except for a few culverts, bridges and a half-done tunnel. In the Silchar-Haflong section too, work on bridge No. 129 has not yet started due to non-receipt of official approval from the State Forest Department, deputy engineer Pande disclosed, while citing reasons for delay in completion of the projects.