Jamshedpur, June 12: Concerned over the spurt in drowning incidents�near the�new bridge construction site in� Subernarekha, the road construction department, Jamshedpur division, has decided to take preventive measures.
As a precautionary measure against the drowning incident, the agency entrusted has been asked to put of warning sign-boards near the bridge-construction site. Moreover, as required it will also install iron nets along the bridge construction site.
The road construction department took the decision in view of two drowning deaths at a specific point adjoining the bridge construction site during the past one month.�Recently, a 17-year-old boy, Saurabh Kumar drowned near the construction site while taking bath.� Earlier, on April 18, a 21-year-old youth, Harendra Gope drowned while taking bath.
The new bridge�across Subernarekha�River linking Sonari with�Dobo in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district is being set up at a cost of Rs 41 crore. The foundation stone for the ambitious project was laid by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on March 13. Kolkata-based construction agency, Royal Infratech Pvt Ltd has been entrusted with the construction work.
The agency blocked the flow of river close to the construction site; a new deep-water zone has come up there due to the river-blocking, leading to attract people, especially youngsters to take plunge in the deep water.��
Moreover, as the fringe area of the city is facing a drinking water crisis, the people tend to come to the deep water zone for taking bath regularly. But eventually the spot has turned into a death trap as many youngsters plunge into the deep water without knowing how to swim.
Talking about the measures, executive engineer, road construction department’s Jamshedpur division, Sanjay Kumar Singh said that keeping the two drowning deaths taken place at a specific spot at Domuhani, he has instructed the private construction agency to install adequate number of warning sign-boards as early as possible.
The project assumes significance as the commissioning of the bridge by December 2017 would reduce to load of heavy traffic on city roads and in the process reduce traffic congestion and road mishaps on city arteries and also reduce travel time from Jamshedpur to Ranchi by nearly 40 minutes.
The 252-meter long four-lane bridge (dual-carriageway) with each carriageway of nearly 8.5 meters and pedestrian pathway on each flank of 1.5 meters will�have the�Sonari side of the proposed bridge reaching out to Swarn Vihar and the Chandil side will connect to a village called Dobo.
From Dobo, an approach road (nearly 6 km) will be constructed which would will lead to Kanderbera (near Chandil) and then meet NH-33.