Army completes bridge outside C'Wealth Games venue in 4 days

The foot overbridge outside main Commonwealth Games venue Jawaharlal Nehru stadium was made ready by the army today, eight days after it collapsed causing a major embarrassment to the country.

The army engineers, whose help was sought by the Delhi government to rebuild the bridge, completed the task in a record four days.

"The army officials told us that the construction of the bridge has been completed. They have completed the work much before the deadline of tomorrow," said a senior Delhi government official.

The 95-metre-long under-construction foot overbridge came crashing down on September 21 injuring 27 people and raising
serious questions over quality and standards of construction of Games infrastructure.

The hanging bridge, which was intended to be a showpiece, was built by a private firm for Delhi government's public works department along with another adjacent bridge at a cost of Rs10.5 crore to connect the parking lot of the stadium with other side of the street in Lodhi Road in south Delhi.

The army was approached to replace the collapsed overbridge, after an alternative plan formulated by the PWD for entry of spectators into the stadium from the south side was rejected due to security concerns. 

The army engineers had begun construction of the bridge on
Saturday after receiving the SOS from the city government.

An army engineering regiment with nearly 1,000 men was
deployed to construct the Bailey bridge which is a portable pre-fabricated bridge designed for use by military units.

The Delhi government official said PWD has already completed construction of the second foot overbridge, adjacent to the collapsed bridge.