Rs 1,000 crore likely to be spent on construction of new Borim bridge

Ponda: The national highways division of the state’s public works department (PWD) has submitted a detailed project report (DPR) of Rs 1,000 crore for the new proposed Borim bridge to the Union ministry of road transport and highways. State govt is expected to float tenders soon after central sanction is received.

PWD minister Digambar Kamat announced that the project is likely to be ready by 2028.


Land acquisition for approach roads to the new bridge has been completed and compensation will soon be paid to those affected by the exercise, chief engineer of the PWD’s national highways division, Dattaprasad Kamat, said.

Power minister, Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar, recently said that modern techniques will be adopted during construction of the new Borim bridge as the cantilever system of the existing Borim bridge that was built in 1974 has become outdated.

“A cantilever bridge over the Kali river (in Karnataka) has collapsed, and the old Zuari bridge — which also uses the same system — has weakened. State govt has therefore decided to stop using the cantilever bridge technique while constructing these vital links in the future,” Dhavalikar said.

He also said commencement of work on the new Borim bridge was delayed because people challenged its road alignment in court. “It’s not because of govt. The road alignment is the same that was done in 2014-15. Only the location of the bridge has changed,” the former PWD minister said.

He further assured that the ongoing fortification work of the existing Borim bridge is being executed by IIT engineers and that the bridge would pose no risk for at least the next five years.

As a part of the strengthening work, Sanrachana Structural Strengthening Pvt Ltd, a firm based in Maharashtra, already completed the installation of central hinge bearings and other tasks for rehabilitation of the bridge in Nov last year.

A few years prior to that, Mumbai-based Fressinet India Ltd had carried out external pre-stressing by tightening the cables at a cost of Rs 9.9 crore to strengthen the important link over the Zuari river. That work was completed in April 2018.