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“THIRD MANDOVI BRIDGE” Goa’s biggest bridge in Making

On 14th June 2014 The foundation stone for the third bridge, which would be the largest bridge in Goa, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra
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PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP AT END OF THIS ARTICLE 

On 14th June 2014 The foundation stone for the third bridge, which would be the largest bridge in Goa, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which would span 3 km and would be 15 meters higher than the existing bridges spaced in between the two. The new bridge is expected to be completed within 30 months. According to the sources from GSIDC “Almost 66,000 vehicles travel over the existing Mandovi bridges every day, At least 25,000 of these will go over the new bridge directly to Margao or Ponda once it is built. This is expected to greatly reduce the present traffic congestion near the Panaji KTC bus stand.”

The main bridge is 600m in length with two end spans of 75m and three interior spans of 150m. The main bridge superstructure consists of 21m wide externally strutted segmented concrete box girder with dual carriageway of 2 x 8.5m with 3m wide median at the centre. The box girder will be supported by stay cables which will be anchored in the pylon and stressed from box girder bottom. The total length of the new bridge will be 3.19km. It will start near the Pundalik Nagar junction at Porvorim and end near the Merces junction. The bridge was proposed by LKS India private limited, who have been entrusted with the task of preparing a master plan for Panaji. Also, another flyover arising from the Merces-Old Goa bypass road will join the Mandovi bridge for traffic from Ponda to go towards Margao.

According to the available information “The Heavy Civil Infrastructure business” has bagged orders worth Rs. 1547 crores. A prestigious order has been bagged from the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited for the design and construction of a cable stayed bridge across river Mandovi at Panaji. The highlights of this 900m four lane bridge will be a 550 m cable stay portion and a 3.2 km viaduct approach. Commenting on the order, Mr. S.N. Subrahmanyan, Sr. Executive Vice President (Infrastructure and Construction), L&T, said “the cable stay bridge will significantly expand infrastructure in Goa to further drive tourism and economic development in the state. It also reaffirms our stature of being ‘Builders of the new India’.”

But the government’s haste in pushing through the third Mandovi bridge has raised questions over its priorities, as hopes of an alternative between north and south Goa to replace the weak link across River Zuari are still uncertain. The detailed project report (DPR) for the Zuari bridge is yet to receive the central government’s nod after a few years of false starts, but, work on the Mandovi bridge is progressing at breakneck speed with a completion schedule of two years. “The Zuari bridge project should have been taken up on priority,” says civil engineer Ramesh Verekar. Agrees activist Samir Kelekar, who questions the government’s bulldozing its agenda on the third Mandovi bridge, stating that wider and larger bridges only create a vicious circle. “Building wider roads and flyovers only encourages private vehicles and thus you will never be able to keep up with traffic. The end result is, you are stuck with the same traffic jams that you tried to remove,” Kelekar said.

Porvorim-based social activist Srinivas Kamat suggests a public consultation to identify the problems of traffic congestion, stating that removal of large traffic circles impeding its flow and traffic lights could be looked at for efficient traffic management instead of a third bridge.  “The whole project need not be cancelled, but, work could be frozen to look for solutions,” Kamat said. “If we can resolve the issue within a fraction of the cost then it is good for us,” he added.

Whatever may the consequences or hassles may arise due to the construction of this third Mandovi bridge but the end result will be surely very good please have a look at this video clip to get the glimpse of this new bridge and do not forget to leave your comments on it.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0U1hYadj7c”]

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