TAKEN FROM FINALCIAL EXPRESS:-
BBJ Constructions Completes Bridging Of River Krishna
Posted: Saturday, Jan 04, 2003 at 0000 hrs IST
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Kolkata, January 3:: BBJ Constructions, a Union government-owned company, has just completed the bridging work of the third railway bridge across the Krishna river at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, according to the managing director of the Kolkata-based company, Chandan K Ganguly.
This third bridge and line will enable the railways to tackle the enormous increase in traffic in the area after guage conversion between Guntur and Guntakal on the one hand and introduction of several new trains from Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad towards Chennai.
The bridge is scheduled to be thrown open to traffic by March. The construction work started in September 2001.
“We have completed the bridging work on December 28. Now the railways will start the work of laying lines,” Mr Ganguly told FE.
He is nostalgic not only because he started his career as a member of the engineers team which constructed the first new bridge across the Krishna river, but also for the reason that BBJ constructed all the three bridges on this river. The first new bridge was constructed in 1965 and the second one in 1989.
The second one replaced the old bridge which was in operation since 1893 making Vijayawada one of the important railway junctions in the country connecting the south with the north and the east.
The construction of the third bridge and line is estimated to cost Rs 41 crore of which BBJ’s job would cost the railways Rs 26 crore. The bridge will have 12 spans of just over 89 metre and about 4,000 tonne of high tensile steel has been used. The design, supply, fabrication and erection have been done by BBJ, while the steel has been supplied by Steel Authority of India Ltd and its Burnpur-based wholly-owned subsidiary Indian Iron & Steel Company Ltd.
“In fact, BBJ constructed long bridges across almost all big rivers in the country,” Mr Ganguly said.
They include the Ganga bridge near Mokama in Bihar, Godabari bridge near Rajamundri in Andhra Pradesh, Saraighat and Joghigopa bridges on the Brahmaputra river in Assam, and the first and second bridges on the Hooghly river in West Bengal.
The second Hooghly bridge or Vidyasagar Setu, a cable stayed one, is considered to be an engineering marvel.