Ardhafond bridge on NH17 damaged, vehicle falls down, bridge in danger

A container vehicle hit the railing of the Ardhafond bridge early morning on Thursday. No casualties. But the water pipeline is broken.

It happened early morning. The heavy container coming from Karwar side hit the railing of  Ardhafond bridge, between Partagal and Shristhal, Canacona and fell deep down in the river.

The river is dry, but the driver survived. He was rushed to the hospital.

But the pipeline supplying Chapoli water to adjoining Poinguinim and Loliem villages broke. The PWD engineers have started the repair work.

But according to veteran journalist Ajit Painginkar, this is a danger signal. If this bridge collapses, whole connectivity to North Canara and even South India would be hampered.

Heavy vehicle transport on this national highway has increased tremendously since Anmod Ghat is closed for traffic while transport on the Chora ghat is restricted.

Painginkar says series of reports filed by all the media persons have been ignored by the authorities.

He observes that two heavy vehicles ply on this road simultaneously and the bridge shakes.

There is a demand to deploy traffic police here for 24 hours to monitor disciplined traffic movement on this bridge.

This bridge was demolished in 1961 by then Portuguese government to block the entry of Indian army from the Karnataka border, which is hardly 10 kms away from here.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant had visited this area on Wednesday, but he inspected only the ongoing work of the new highway and bridges.