Burma Bridge: A picture of sheer neglect

Islamabad

Burma Bridge, once a busiest bridge on Khanna Road has been in a shambles for years as one section of the road has been completely banned for traffic usage. The issue is not a new one to be highlighted, the condition of the bridge has been the same for almost five years, but no attention has been paid by the authorities concerned to rectify the situation.

On the other hand instead of being restored, the bridge has been turned into a garbage dump by the nearby residents.

Talking to ‘The News’ people living around the bridge and motorists said that they had filed several applications with the higher authorities for repairing the bridge, but nobody has paid any attention to their request.

Rizwan Mehmood, a resident of Khanna, said that any tragedy could befall the road users any time, because travelling on Burma Bridge is becoming a matter of life and death for road users, who have no alternate. “The Burma Bridge could collapse any time but nobody is taking it seriously,” he denounced.

Shahzad Ahmed, a nearby shopkeeper said that officials are only making promises but not fulfilling their promises for almost five years. “It seems that government is waiting for a serious incident,” he denounced.

When ‘The News’ contacted Capital Development Authority (CDA) Director (Structure) Khalid Zaidi, he has admitted that Burma Bridge was in poor condition for a long time. He said that higher authorities have not yet sent any proposal for redesigning or restructuring the bridge to him to take further action. He assured to bring the matter into the notice to higher authorities to start construction work of Burma Bridge immediately to avoid any kind of serious incident. He also said they have banned all kind of traffic on one side of the bridge due to its dilapidated condition.

It merits mentioning here that on July 27, 2011 when ‘The News’ drew the attention of the capital administration towards the poor condition of Burma Bridge, which was established on Nullah Korang on Khanna Road way back in 1950, Capital Development Authority (CDA) at that time took the responsibility of dilapidated Burma Bridge and moved a summary worth Rs100 million to the Ministry of Finance for starting repair work on it on November 16, 2011. But the matter of the fact is that so far the funds for the repair of the bridge have not been released.

The then CDA Director Roads and Maintenance in a statement said he had moved a summary of Rs100 million to the Ministry of Finance for construction work of Burma Bridge. He had also claimed that he has send several reminders to concerned department to release funds for starting construction work of Burma Bridge because it could collapse any time.

The than deputy commissioner of Islamabad also assured to start construction work saying he would insist Capital Development Authority (CDA) to start construction work of Burma Bridge for avoiding any untoward incident.

But, unfortunately all claims of Capital Administration and CDA proved nothing while motorists and nearby residents continuously facing difficulties. There are no police constables here at Burma Bridge to monitor the moments of public. Majority of portions of Burma Bridge are continuously collapsing but Islamabad administration seeing the whole drama with closed eyes for more than five years.