The country’s first
cable-stayed rail over bridge is being inaugurated by the Prime
Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee near Bangalore tomorrow.
The bridge is situated at Krishnarajapuram on NH 4.
Giving details
of the project in a press conference here today, the Minister
of State (Independent charge) for Road Transport and Highways,
Maj. Gen. (Retd) B. C. Khanduri informed that this is the first
time in the country that cable-stayed technology has been used
to build a rail over bridge. This was necessitated because of
the peculiar site conditions, he said. The 230 metres long four-laned
bridge consists of 40 cables. The bridge will ensure smooth
flow of high-density traffic and will also take care of future
growth of combined traffic on NH 4, NH 7 and the ring road of
Bangalore.
The Minister
also informed that in view of the request from majority of States
for more time to put in place the infrastructure required for
introduction of high security vehicle registration plates, it
has been decided to postpone it. As per the new schedule, all
new vehicles coming on the roads after 1st January
2004 will have to have high security number plates, and vehicles
registered before 1st January 2004 will get two years
time (till 1st January 2006) to switch to the new
number plate system, he said.
