Villagers 'open' bridge, officials to close it again

MANGALORE: A bridge too far. Ready for inauguration for the last two months, but waiting for a central minister to do the honours.
Angered by delays in ‘official’ opening of the new Panemangalore bridge across the Netravati river in Bantwal taluk, villagers on Sunday ‘unofficially’ inaugurated it by removing blockades erected by the National Highway Authorities (NHA).
But NHA is not amused. It will block the bridge again, by dumping truckloads of mud on either side of the road on the bridge.
NHA chief executive engineer Balakrishna said as per rules, any bridge costing above Rs 5 crore has to be inaugurated by a central minister. Since the bridge was built at a cost of Rs 8.62 crore, it will have to await the formalities.
The bridge was completed two months ago.
Talks of inauguration were held in March, but nothing came out of it. The latest postponement was on April 19 as Union transport minister B.C. Khanduri couldn’t make it due to the truckers’ strike and PM’s programme in Kashmir.
As Parliament session is on, sources say the bridge will be inaugurated in the third week of May. Home minister L.K. Advani and Khanduri are expected to participate.
The work on the bridge, completed after a gap of eight years, was expedited after the 89-year-old Panemangalore Bridge was damaged in May last year.
The new bridge has a carriageway of 7.5 mt (old bridge was 4.5 mt) and allows two-way traffic.
The distance between the B.C. Road Junction and the new bridge road, connecting NH-48, remains the same at 1.1 km. The road connecting either side of the bridge costs another Rs 9.33 crore, taking the total cost to Rs 17.95 crore.
The tenders were called in 1992 and Rs 6.62 crore was approved in 1995. The final drawings were approved in 1998. Again, there was another delay due to cost escalation.