The Balason river bridge in Siliguri reopened to twoway traffic on Monday, after a gap of 10 months during which it was being repaired.
The reopening of the bridge, located on NH10 between Bagdogra and Darjeeling More, has come as a relief for lakhs of residents in and around the city and thousands of daily commuters to Siliguri. Two way traffic had stalled at the bridge after a pillar was damaged by the rainfed, swollen Balason river in October last year.
A stretch of the concrete plank of the bridge had also subsided then.This had made the state PWD (NHIX division) install a Bailey bridge over the damaged stretch in December, 2021. Since then, vehicles had been moving in a single flank on the bridge.The PWD had also taken the task to repair the damaged portion.
