THATTA, Oct 2: District Nazim Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi has termed the repair work on the crumbling Thatta-Sujawal Bridge over the River Indus unsatisfactory and requested the chief minister to order its complete rehabilitation.

Built in 1969 at a cost of Rs40 million the bridge bears the brunt of heavy vehicular traffic from Badin to Karachi and from Thatta to Hyderabad and vice versa.

The bridge, inaugurated by Gen Yahya Khan is locally known as “Doolha Darya Khan Bridge”. It links the border town of Badin with Karachi and connects Thatta with the rest of districts in Lower Sindh including Hyderabad.

Mr Shirazi told Dawn on Monday that the bridge’s repair was part of Asian Development Bank-funded Sindh Rural Sector Development Programme, which also included the construction of 30.75 kilometres Thatta-Sujawal Road, 97 culverts and a new bridge on Darro Branch. The bank had allocated a total of Rs730 million for the programme, he said.

He said that work on the Thatta-Sujawal Road was in full swing while the repair work on the Thatta-Sujawal Bridge would start within days according to the construction company. But the nominal repair of an important installation, which bore the brunt of hundreds of oil tankers carrying crude oil from various oilfields in Badin to Karachi and vice versa was not enough, he said.

The sidewalks on the bridge had developed big cracks and potholes and the iron girders fabricated in steel reinforcement in the road were broken at many places, he said adding that the broken slabs on the sidewalks had become death traps for the pedestrians and caused many accidents.

An NLC tanker fell onto a boat in the river while passing over the bridge a few years ago killing four fishermen, he said, adding that a 150 feet long portion of the bridge’s railing broke off and fell into the river just a few days back.

The nazim said that he had requested the chief minister to order complete rehabilitation of the bridge from the foundations to the top.