Friday, April 18, 2014

25 Percent More Fund for Bailey Bridges

The New Indian Express (Bhubaneswar), April 18, 2014
The State Government has agreed to provide additional 25 per cent of the project cost in advance to two Central public sector units (PSUs) for construction of 72 Bailey bridges in four tribal dominated districts before the onset of monsoon.
As per the agreement, the Central PSUs are to be paid 10 per cent of the project cost in advance for mobilisation of materials. The Government agreed to provide additional 25 per cent in advance against their bank guarantee for procurement of raw materials from the Steel Authority of India Limited.
The decision was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra recently.
The Government had entered into an agreement with Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd, a Central PSU, for construction of 60 Bailey bridges including approach roads in Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabrangpur, Rayagada and Gajapati districts. The company has started construction of 41 bridges in Rayagada and eight bridges in Gajapati district with a budget estimate of `90.31 crore.
In a separate agreement with Garden Reach Ship Builders Engineers Ltd, the State Government has assigned the PSU with construction of 23 bridges including 19 in Koraput and four in Malkangiri district with estimated cost of `63.25 crore.
“It has been decided to complete all the projects under execution in the four districts of Rayagada, Gajapati, Koraput and Malkangiri by July for which field level operations have already started,” a senior officer of the Rural Development department said.
The Government has decided to assign 100 more projects to each of the company in the current financial year. The approach roads to the bailey bridges will be constructed by the Panchayati Raj and ST and SC Development department out of their own fund.
The Rural Development department has finalised sites and project proposals for 87 Bailey bridges. The width of the bridges has been standardised for 4.25 metre. The length varies as per the requirement. The maximum length of a single bridge taken up in this phase is 120 metre, the sources said.
The Government has received proposals for construction of 806 Bailey bridges. While the Panchyati Raj Department has proposed 506 such bridges, the ST and SC Development Department has given proposals for 179 bridges and Collectors of various districts have proposed 121 bridges.
The State Government has adopted the new technique of Bailey bridge - a portable and pre-fabricated steel bridge - to provide all-weather connectivity to the remote areas where conventional bridges are not possible.

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