Siliguri, 22nd August: Balasan Bridge opens a day before the scheduled time. Siliguri Police Commissioner Gaurav Sharma and Siliguri Mayor Goutam Deb visited the site and took stock of the entire bridge on foot before allowing any movement of vehicles.
Siliguri Metropolitan Police completely closed the bridge for four days after receiving a letter from PWD urging them to do the same. Soon after PWD started working on opening the Bailey bridge and completed the entire work in three days. After this, the PWD officials inspected the bridge. Today in the morning, Commissioner Gaurav Sharma and Mayor Goutam Deb inspected the strength of the bridge and thus granted permission for movement to start. At the same time, Police Commissioner Gaurav Sharma said that the PWD had finished the work a day before and also stated that movement will commence from today onwards. The Commissioner also told that there are some restrictions with the opening of the bridge as the movement of goods vehicles with more than 6 wheels over the bridge is not permitted. Also, the police will have a special watch on the bridge.
Siliguri Mayor Goutam Deb said that the locals and commuters were facing a lot of problems in their day-to-day life because of the damaged bridge. However, the PWD has opened the bridge for movement after completing the repair work on the bridge before the Durga Puja.
The common people were also seen as ecstatic since they were gravely facing problems in commuting due to the damaged Balasan Bridge and were eagerly waiting for the work to get completed. But now with the opening of the bridge, all those problems have been solved.
Rajeev Chattoraj, Chief Engineer, PWD National Highway, their team has completed the work a day before the scheduled time. The bridge is now fully ready for everyday commuters and vehicles to ply on. Finally the repair of the bridge and opening of it will bring great relief to the people and locals.