BAHAWALPUR, Sept 16: The Punjab Highway Department has drawn up a scheme to rehabilitate the Panjnad Headworks Bridge at a cost of Rs200 million.

The 76-year-old bridge near Uch Sharif, about 70 kilometres from here, is in a rundown condition and currently closed to heavy traffic. As a result, commuters travelling by buses and coaches have been facing inconvenience.

The highway department has been assigned the restoration job, and it has planned to replace the old girders under the bridge with a cemented slab and reconstruct about 3,000-foot long and 25-foot wide stretch.

Sources said the mega project required expertise and a great deal of care as replacement of girders was highly risky.

The highway officials were taking their time to launch the construction work so that experienced workforce could be hired.

The Panjnad Headworks Bridge was built in 1932 and first repaired in 1981. The officials have already declared the ageing bridge non-serviceable for heavy vehicles owing to potholes and depressions.

ARRESTED: Police claimed on Tuesday to have arrested two persons, including a postmaster, on the charge of appropriating the Food Support Programme funds.

Samiullah Chaudhry, the chairman of the chief minister’s task force, received complaints against postmaster Bashir Ahmad of Adda Chibiana (Bahawalnagar district) and Muhammad Yasin Wattoo of Basti Punnanwali that they had deducted Rs100 to Rs500 from each of the deserving person’s funds.

He reported the matter to the police who arrested the two persons.

CABLE OPERATORS: The Baghdad Jadid police took into custody nine cable operators who allegedly cut the wires of rival companies, bringing the city’s entire cable system to a halt on Tuesday.