IMPHAL, July 8: A high level meeting was reportedly convened by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh 9.15am this morning at his office chamber on the progress of the ongoing construction work of Sanjenthong Bridge.
According to highly reliable sources, the meeting minutely deliberated on the target of completion now becoming less uncertain with the Simplex Project limited reportedly putting forward the target of completion otherwise to Government expectation.
It is learnt that the Simplex set the completion of the bridge by February 2015 against Government’s declaration of finishing it before Sangai festival.
The meeting further dwelled on the possibilities of further expediting of the work completion to meet the target as announced earlier.
The meeting was also attended by Dr Kh Ratankumar Singh, Minister Works, additional chief engineer, superintending engineer, chief engineer of PWD and top officials of simplex company.
On the other hand, the dismantling of the old Sanjenthong bridge is yet to be completed due to lack of certain heavy machinery although the simplex assured to complete the task by June last.
To mop up the debris of old bridge the company is awaiting a crane with lifting capacity of upto 150 ton station at Guwahati but to bring in the machine in Manipur it is likely to take more than one week.
Of the 44 pillars to sustained the platform of the bridge, 20 pillars have been completed so far on the eastern side (bank) of the Imphal River of the required 22 however work is yet to be started on the Western side.
The PWD (Bridge Division) that is assisting the project closed down the bridge on April 30, 2014 and the ground work commenced from May 23 last.
The project has been estimated to be Rs 29 crore with 55.8 m in length and 22.27 wide. However, the simplex project limited is yet to receive any financial sanction from the Government’s side till date.