A rapid action team is being formed by the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) to monitor the health of Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge.
The bridge – opened in 1992, is 27 years old and requires regular checks for being a busy route constantly in use. A team of bridge engineers, experts and technologists is being formed by the HRBC to do this work on a regular basis.
Bridge engineers will be hired on a contract basis, a senior official said. The team will carry out year-long inspection of the bridge from now and will individually monitor every part of the bridge to know if any part requires special attention or needs to be replaced.
The bridge is one of the busiest in Kolkata and connects the city with adjoining district Howrah. It experiences a high load of traffic daily, and is subject to regular stress.
The special team is being formed to prevent mishaps in the absence of proper surveillance, the way the shocking collapse of the Majerhat bridge took place in 2018.
Recently, steps have been taken by the state government to identify and restore the ailing flyovers and bridges across the state to prevent accidents. After the Majerhat flyover collapse, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had declared 20 flyovers in the city and suburbs to be distressed out of which seven were said to be “most vulnerable”.
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