Vehicular movements on Arun bridge resume

By Gokul Bhujel,Bhojpur, Mar. 6: Vehicular movement that was affected along the Dhankuta-Bhojpur section of the road for the last three days after eight nuts of a concrete bridge over the Arun River broke resumed Sunday afternoon. 

Eight nut bolts of the steel grinder and the vertical post connecting the base plate were broken in the middle part of the bridge, affecting the vehicular movements.  

 As the bridge is at risk, trucks weighing more than 10 tonnes are not allowed to cross the bridge, said Sharad Kumar Thapa, head of District Police Office Bhojpur. Also only one vehicle is allowed to pass through it at a time.  

According to him, as soon as the nuts of the bridge were broken, movements of heavy vehicles with loads weighing more than 10 tonnes have been restricted.  The vehicles heading to the district headquarters, Annapurna and Manebhanjayang have to use the bridge. 

Rajendra Shah, Head of Road Division Office, Tumlingtar, said that the nuts broke because the bridge was not repaired in time, heavy vehicles were allowed to cross it and a sharp rise in the number of vehicles along the road section.  

According to him, a technical team from Chitwan came  to repair the bridge and carried out other repair works on Sunday.

According to Hari Prasad Ghimire, Chief District Officer of Bhojpur, after the nuts of the bridge were broken, vehicular movements through the bridge were  controlled keeping in mind the safety of the vehicles.

“Only one vehicle was allowed to enter and exit at a time, while the vehicles weighing  more than 10 tonnes were not allowed on the bridge until it was  repaired,” said CDO Ghimire.