KOHAT, June 2: Following its approval by the federal government, the National Highway Authority (NHA) has started work on the new bridge on Indus River at Khushalgarh, which will connect southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Rawalpindi through Kohat.

Construction of the new bridge was a long-standing demand of the people of southern districts, as passage of long vehicles transporting goods was almost impossible from the 103-year-old steel bridge with 90-degree turns at both the ends. The bridge has been declared dangerous a decade ago, as it starts shaking when the load increases. Traffic was suspended during the last year's floods in Indus River.

Officials linked to the project told this correspondent that the new bridge, to be constructed on new site, would be 10.5 meters wide and 130 meters higher the old bridge.

They said that the government agencies had completed the environmental impact assessment survey of the new project.

They said that the construction of the new bridge would cost Rs1,358 million and the project would be completed in two years. An official of the NHA told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the contract of the project had been awarded to Usmania Associates, who had started moving equipment and staff to the site.

He said that in fact two bridges of the same size were planned at the site, but the second one was delayed and would be constructed with the increase of traffic on the route after five to 10 years.

The federal government has approved the bridge project after two decades long dispute over the height of the controversial Kalabagh dam. The bridge project had been cancelled more than five times due to politics on the Kalabagh Dam among various political parties.

The project had to wait for the finalisation of the height of the dam. However, the bridge project got a go-ahead after clear signals that the dam project has been dumped.

The water and power minister had said in 2008 that the dam project had been cancelled for ever due to opposition from Khyber Pakhuntnkhwa, Sindh and Balochsitan.

The construction of new bridge was also planned in view of facilitating increasing exports to Afghanistan via Paarachinar, as trucks and containers could not pass through the old bridge.