Heavy vehicles banned on Madi bridge

TANAHU, Jan 8: Heavy vehicles have been prohibited from using the bridge over the Madi river along the Prithivi Highway in Tanahun from Wednesday after the expansion joint of the bridge was found dislocated. Only light vehicles have been allowed from Wednesday, according to the local administration.



"We have already informed the Department of Roads to send us the technical team for repairing the bridge from the Madi River bridge project," said Narayandutta Bhandari, engineer at the Western Division Road Division Office No 1 Damauli.[break]



The division office said the expansion joint has gone 2.5 inch down from its original position.



Built with the assistance of China government in 1972, the Madi river bridge is 370 meters long and, the longest bridge along the Prithivi Highway.



Bhandari informed that railing post of the bridge has also came unstuck. "This state of the bridge appears precarious. The bridge will be opened only after detailed study into the problem," said Bhandari.



Meanwhile, police have been deployed at both ends of the bridge to control the regulation of the vehicles crossing the bridge. "We have been requesting light vehicles to cross the bridge one at a time,"said Superintendent of Police (SP) Tika Bahadur KC.

Related story

Locals make 'fresh demands' to Upper Madi Hydropower Project