GUJRAT: The railways department has started laying steel sheets on both pedestrian sidewalks of Victoria Railway Bridge over river Jhelum near Chak Nizam of Malakwal tehsil in Mandi Bahauddin district.

Wooden plaques have been removed on the tracks of the bridge connecting Malakwal tehsil with Pind Daden Khan in Jhelum district.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister MNA Nasir Iqbal Bosal from Malakwal had got Rs5 million approved from the federal government to lay down the steel sheets.

The railways department is executing the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of May after which the tracks would be ready for motorcyclists.

The laying of steel sheet along pedestrian tracks is aimed at facilitating pedestrians as well as motorcyclists in crossing the river who had been banned around a year ago after a woman fell into the river and died due to a broken wooden plaque.

After some repair work, the authorities had reopened the track for pedestrians in August last year, but motorcyclists could only cross the river by loading their bikes on boats.

MNA Bosal told locals that the contract for constructing a separate asphalt bridge for motorists over Jhelum near Malakwal had been awarded to the National Logistics Cell at Rs3.5 billion.

A local journalist from Malakwal said that by late 2012, the then federal government of PPP had also awarded a contract for laying of an asphalt layer along the Victoria Bridge, and the contractor had even shifted machinery at the site. But due to court orders at the time, the government had been stopped from executing the project ahead of 2013 general elections and the PML-N government had shelved the project after coming into power.

That was why locals were concerned about the fate of new projects just when the general elections were around the corner.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2018