A glass base on the popular Atal pedestrian bridge on Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad has developed cracks, just seven months after its inauguration, reports showed on Thursday. Officials were alerted and the area around the glass base on the overbridge has been cordoned off. Meanwhile, the bridge is still open to pedestrians.
The 300-metre-long and 14-metre-wide Atal Bridge, which connects the flower garden on the western end of the riverfront and the upcoming arts and culture centre on the eastern end, has become a huge attraction for people since it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 27.
Authorities have reached out to the contractor of the project to explain why the glass portion shattered “internally”, as per a report by The Times of India. A senior Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRDCL) said, as quoted in the report, that a team has been constituted to ascertain whether the cracks were due to any compromise in the quality of glass or if it could not withstand either the temperature or impact shocks.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress in Gujarat slammed the Bhupendra Patel government over the incident. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Hemang Raval, sharing a picture of the shattered glass slab, tweeted, “Atal Bridge is damaged. When Congress demanded Atal Bridge's fitness certificate, some called it an election stunt. Today we have news of the breaking of the bridge’s glass slab?”
"The Congress party once again demands from the authorities the fitness certificate of Atal Bridge and the safety audit and financial audit of all the projects inaugurated by the Gujarat government in the last one year and if the fitness certificate is not available, this project should be stopped immediately for the safety of the people of Gujarat," Raval said.
In November last year, the Ahmedabad civic body decided to restrict the number of persons on the pedestrian-only Atal Bridge to 3,000 per hour. The decision had come after the tragic Morbi bridge collapse.
According to a report by The Indian Express, senior officials, glass manufacturing and fitting experts who visited the site said that many times glasses develop such spontaneous cracks because of several reasons.
“Experts too have concluded that at times the glass breaks. But the four layers of glass are toughened and bonded with lamination, which makes it strong enough and not risky. To test the strength, eleven people stood on it today morning,” Jagdish Patel, chief general manager at the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited, told The Indian Express.
The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited has confirmed previously too that the bridge is strong and capable but keeping the unfortunate incident of Morbi in mind it had asked for cooperation from the people.
