Uttarakhand
State’s 64 Bridges to be Renovated with Rs 264 Crore: Approval by HPC Meeting
- 10 Jul 2023
- 3 min read
Why in News?
According to information received from the media on July 9, 2023, the health of damaged and over-aged bridges in Uttarakhand will be improved or replaced. In this regard, an amount of Rs 264 crore 69 lakh 52 thousand has been approved by the government for 64 such bridges under the World Bank-funded U-prepare project.
Key Points:
- Apart from this, the Public Works Department (PWD) has submitted an estimate of Rs 622.18 crore (estimated cost) to the government for 74 bridges.
- It is known that the state government is working on many fronts under the mitigation of disaster management in the state. For this, with the help of the World Bank, several works have been completed under the Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project (UDRP) in the first phase and some projects are underway, while in the second phase, the U-Prepare project has been started.
- Under this, this project has been started to improve the health of bridges. It also includes those bridges which were declared dangerous in the safety audit conducted by the government in December 2022.
- The project, funded by the World Bank, is to be completed in the next five years.
- It may be noted that the High-Powered Committee (HPC) constituted under the chairmanship of State Chief Secretary Dr. SS Sandhu had given green signal to the Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project (UDRP).
- Under the project, repair of damaged bridges, construction of new bridges and construction of missing link bridges are to be done. Bridges damaged in disasters have been taken on priority in the project.
- At present financial approval has been received for 64 bridges from HPC under the World Bank-funded U-Prepare project in the state. The department has submitted the details of the estimated expenditure for 74 bridges. As soon as the tender process is completed, the work of improving the bridges will be started.
- It is notable that in the safety audit conducted in December 2022 on the instructions of the government, 36 bridges were found unsafe. During that time, 3262 safety audits of five zones were conducted. Under this, the bridges which can be technically improved will be repaired.
