February 17, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 28, 1428

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JHANG, Feb 16: Political parties, social organisations and hundreds of students staged a demonstration at the Rivaz bridge over river Chenab in Bharwana near Jhang ahead of President Musharraf’s visit to Faisalabad on Feb 17 to press their demand for the construction of a new road bridge.

As it happens, the more than a century old rail-cum-road bridge has outlived its mechanical life.

The protesters threw traffic out of gear by burning used tyres and staging a sit-in in front of the bridge. They were also carrying banners inscribed with their demand that the president should announce the construction of the new bridge during his visit of Faisalabad.

Bahadur Khan Jhaggar, the Jamaat-I-Islami’s Jhang district amir, expressed his apprehension that the worn-out bridge might collapse the way the Ran Pathani bridge near Karachi gave away. He said the collapsing of the bridge in this case could cause heavy casualties.

He claimed the road inside the bridge was in shambles because of the appearance of large pits that had resulted from cracks developed by iron plates underneath the railway track and the metalled road.

The passing of a train or a heavy vehicle jolts the bridge which may cause derailment of a train any day. The cracking sound of iron plates is distinctly audible to bus and train commuters.

The heavy vehicular traffic, particularly tractor-trolleys loaded with sugarcane, has completely damaged approach roads on either side of the bridge. The prolonged traffic jams in consequence of dilapidated roads have taken several lives of serious patients as they could not make it to hospitals.

The 102-year-old protective railing along the road has no sign of its existence, and the railway department, which is earning millions of rupees through an unjustifiable toll tax, is not spending a single penny on the repair of railing and approach roads.

Mr Jhaggar said that President Musharraf and former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali during their previous visits to Shorkot and Faisalabad and Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and Governor Khalid Maqbool during their visits to Jhang had made promises for the allocation of funds for the construction of the new bridge.