Govt to formulate policy for database for bridges' age, condition: Gadkari

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that the Centre will framework a policy to know the condition and age of all the bridges across the country.

He said that the Ministry had prepared the Indian Bridge Management System in order to collect information about all the bridges of the country.

Speaking at the launch of the book "Building Bridges - Shaping the Future" written by Sachidanand Joshi and Vaibhav Dange, the union minister said that the Centre is mulling over making use of stainless steel in the bridges being built on the seaside. He said this will help in increasing the strength and longevity of the bridges as well as making them more secure.

Highlighting new-age technologies, Gadkari said that new technology will have to be adopted for connecting the spans of bridges.

"We have a span of 30 metre in India. There is a span of 45 meters in Malaysia. This reduces the cost of the bridge by 30-40 per cent," he said.

Gadkari emphasised on multistorey road projects.

"Land acquisition is difficult in cities. There is a need to build three or four storey roads in the cities. A project has been made to run metro over a two-storey road in Nagpur. Similarly, preparations are being made for a four-storey road project in Pune," added the union minister.