After a long campaign for the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned to Gujarat for a two-day trip. The Prime Minister, who was also the former Chief Minister of the state is to inaugurate the 1.4 extra dose cable bridge on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai National Highway on March 7, 2017. PM Modi went on social networking site Twitter and said that he would dedicate the Four-Lane Extradosed bridge over the Narmada at Bharuch on the National Highway 8, and Petrochemicals Complex of OPAL at Dahej to the nation. The 1.4 km bridge is reported to be the longest in the country.
Here is all you need to know about the bridge:
1) The bridge is 1344 metres long and 22.8 metres wide. It is built by Larsen and Turbo as a part of the Rs 379 crore project of the National Highway Authority of India.
2) The project was completed in September 2017, a small delay than the expected time of August. Even then, it was concluded well ahead of its official schedule. It took 2 years to complete.
Also watch:
3) The project was started in mid 2014, and was handed over to the Larsen and Turbo company after the initial failure of the HCC, which had been given the order to a higher cost of built, operation, owning and transfer basis.
4) The NH8 Bharuch sees extremely heavy traffic owing to the routine maintenance work on Sardar bridge. It is considered to be one of the busiest national highways in India.
5) The bridge consists od 216 cables, each one of them being 25 to 40 metres long.
Also watch: PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate cable-stayed bridge in Gujarat to ease traffic woes on Ahmedabad-Mumbai National Highway
6) The bridge has a 17.4 metre wide 4-lane road. The footpath on the bridge is of 3 metres.
7) The lightings on the bridge goes on for almost 1.344 km. There are more than 400 LED lights on the bridge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to inaugurate the bridge today. He will also inaugurate the Mega Petrochemical project of ONGC in Bharuch. The project is reportedly spread over 538 hectares and is estimated to cost around Rs 3,000 crores.