New Bailey bridge at Sissu soon

MC Thakur

Manali, August 30

Efforts are on to have a new Bailey bridge at Sissu in Lahaul-Spiti where the old one collapsed yesterday so as to restore the link for ensuring the supply of material for the construction of the Rohtang tunnel.

Brig DN Bhatt, Chief Engineer, Rohtang tunnel, today said, “Efforts are being made on a war footing to have the new bridge in place at the earliest. However, work would not get affected as sufficient stock of fuel and construction material is already lying at the site,” he said.

He further said after the collapse of the bridge, the main camp site of the contractor had cut off from the tunnel. “Though the construction work will continue, the pace of work will get affected as workers and supervisors will now have to cross the foot bridge near Sissu village for which they have to walk about four km to reach the tunnel,” he admitted.

He said the 170 feet Bailey bridge was constructed in 2006 and could bear a load of 30 tonnes. The Bailey bridge connected the north portal of the Rohtang tunnel with the Manali-Sissu road and gave way while a truck of the Strabag-Afcons joint venture, which is undertaking the construction work, was crossing it.

The truck, loaded with construction material, fell into the river last evening as the bridge collapsed. There was no casualty as the driver of the truck managed to swim to safety and climbed up holding the broken bridge. The piers on both sides of the bridge had been partially damaged, said Brig Bhatt.

Officials from the 38 Task Force, Project Deepak and Project Rohtang Tunnel, visited the site to look into the reasons for the collapse and select a suitable site for having the new bridge.