KOCHI: It is one of the busiest and oldest road bridges in the city. The old Venduruthy bridge, which connects Willingdon Island to the mainland, with many a pothole and uneven tarring is dangerous for commuters.Yet the new Venduruthy bridge meant to take the load off the old bridge is yet to start functioning. It has been mired in various problems leading to further delay. The work which began in 2007 was scheduled to be completed in 2009.Says PWD executive engineer T I Jose, "We could complete the work only this year. The increase in the price of building materials in the last few months resulted in the delay."The PWD officials said that the Cochin Port Trust's decision to withdrew from the project resulted in the delay. "Within a few months, the Port Trust, which was supposed to contribute one-third of the finances, withdrew from the project. So we were forced to suspend the work for quite some time," said Jose. On October 2007, the state government intervened and asked the Kerala Road Fund Board to provide the money for the project. It was only then that we were able to resume the work on the bridge, he said. The bridge is almost complete. But the work of the approach road is yet to be completed. The delay in the work now is mainly because of the construction of the approach road. "We are creating an underpass on the side of the approach road leading to Willingdon Island. The construction of the underpass was a demand put forward by the Southern Naval Command while developing the plan, said Jose. The Naval Base needed an underpass at the end of the bridge connecting its base to Kataribagh so that their vehicles can move along without any restriction. It was when we started the work of the underpass after the completion of the bridge that we encountered a problem. The water pipe was a hindrance to carry out the work."We have asked the water authority to move the pipe but the work has not started yet. To complete the work without disturbing the water pipe is a difficult task. So the work is getting delayed." But KWA engineer K S Babu said, "We had been inviting tenders from contractors to replace the pipe since January. Only now we could forward the tender to Thiruvananthapuram. Another problem that we encountered in the last few months was the non-availability of a similar pipe."PWD engineer Jose said, "We expect to complete the work within three months and after that the bridge will be inaugurated."
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