Jamshedpur : The Mango bridge- Jayprakash Narayan Setu- which is the gateway to the steel city from NH-33- is dotted with craters and potholes on both lanes of the 800 meter double lane bridge due to lack of maintenance for last two years.
Pothole-ridden bridge have turned out to be a nightmare for motorists with two-wheelers falling victims to the callousness of the authorities in taking monsoon maintenance.
The potholes and craters were filled by Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco after a request from the district administration in 2012. But the traffic heavy vehicles on the bridge have made the craters and potholes to develop again in span two years.
The Rs 6-crore bridge was built in 1996 by the undivided Bihar government and came under the jurisdiction of the state road construction department after Jharkhand was born in 2000.Every day, more than 1,50,000 vehicles � private, public and commercial � cross Jayprakash Narayan Setu, which connects the city to the densely populated Mango and NH-33.
A senior traffic police officer said that incidents of two-wheeler riders falling into potholes have increased during the monsoons. Drivers of bigger vehicles lose control over while negotiating the potholes often resulting in fatal accidents. In most cases, motorists are unable to gauge the depth of the water-filled holes. Moreover the potholes also slow down traffic on the already-congested roads, he said.
Apart from heavy showers, inadequate maintenance and lack of provision for the water to drain off are being cited as the reasons for the pathetic condition of many city roads. Very often, water gets collected on the road because it does not have the adequate inclination towards the drains.
Jamshedpur West MLA and Congress leader Banna Gupta admitted of the problem which has aggravated due to rain and assured to take it up with the district administration.
The commuters complained that often they confront with such situation. Long queue of vehicles including trucks, trailers, auto-rickshaws, cars and two-wheelers could be seen at the Mango bridge and the approach roads– Dimna Road, Pardih Road, Old Court Road and Bhuiyandih Road.
A section of commuters also blamed the traffic department for its inability to control the situation. �There would not have been such a chaos had there been traffic constables to manage the situation,” complained a commuter.
Traffic police were deployed to control the situation two hours after the jam began. A section of youths also volunteered in managing the traffic.
