Vehicular movement to stop from April 1
PRAYAGRAJ: Movement of vehicles on the Chandra Shekhar Azad Setu, commonly known as Phaphamau Bridge, over the Ganga, will be suspended for around a month starting from April 1. The important bridge is in dire need of repairs which would be undertaken by the public works department from Friday.
However, the district administration has prepared two pontoon bridges under the Phaphamau Bridge joining both the banks of Ganga and cars and two-wheelers can cross the river using them.
Regarding the route diversion owing to the repair work, officials of the National Highway Authority of India, the traffic department and PWD had held a number of meetings and have agreed to a route map.
The Phaphamau Bridge was constructed in 1988 and is the main route from Prayagraj to
Lucknow, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Ayodhya among other districts. Around 30,000-50,000 small and big vehicles move on this bridge every day. Due to heavy traffic, its joints have got damaged. Patching was done many times in the past, but it crumbles in a few days. Apart from this, the work of bearing, oiling and greasing is also pending. The date of repair of the bridge has been extended three times.
“On one of the pontoon bridges, the traffic will move towards Phaphamau side using the road leading to electric crematorium of Shankar Ghat and after crossing the Ganga, commuters will reach Phaphamau near the water tank on Prayagraj-Lucknow highway,” said inspector, traffic, Manoj Kumar Singh. In such a situation, the movement of heavy vehicles will be restricted on this bridge for a month and they will be diverted towards Sahson-Jhunsi and enter Prayagraj via Shashtri bridge, he added.
Singh further said that to come into Prayagraj from Phaphamau, commuters will use a different pontoon bridge which would land them near Narayani Ashram from where they can come towards Shivkuti and enter the city. Moreover, now the buses for Pratapgarh, Ayodhya, Basti, Gonda, Sultanpur, Amethi etc will also have to take a longer route and the distance to Prayagraj will increase, the fare for travelling to these cities will also increase.