KARACHI, Sept 5: The Frontier Works Organization began to remove the debris of the Shershah Bridge, which formed portion of the 57-km-long Northern Bypass, on Wednesday.

The chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant-General (retired) Farooq Ahmed, told Dawn that the wreckage removal operation would be completed in two to three weeks.

Over 60 experts from the FWO are engaged in the operation, which has been launched with the collaboration of the National Logistics Corporation that had constructed the bridge.

FWO officials said they would first cut the broken section of the bridge into 20-foot pieces and then into smaller pieces of two to three feet. Jackhammers were being used to cut the mangled mass of concrete, they said.

Lt-Gen Farooq said the FWO experts would first remove the broken pieces from the site and then the pillars of the collapsed section and its parallel segment, which was standing, to demolish the entire affected portion of the collapsed bridge.

“The FWO experts are breaking the wrecked concrete mass into smaller pieces mechanically,” he said.

He said a media cell was being established near the bridge collapse in an air-conditioned container to facilitate the newsmen. “It will become operational by Thursday evening,” he added.

The bridge, which collapsed on Saturday, claimed at least 10 lives. M/s Engineering Consultant International was consultants of the project. Though the bridge was completed two years ago it was redesigned in the light of recommendations of foreign experts when a fault had appeared in its design.