New bridge over Ganga to cut down distance between Lucknow-Chitrakoot

Prayagraj: Good news awaits commuters travelling between state capital Lucknow and Chitrakoot or towards Madhya Pradesh via Prayagraj. Following a new bridge coming up over river Ganga, joining Kareti ghat of Kunda Pratapgrah and Shahzadpur of Kaushambi district would reduce the travelling distance by around 50 km.
After the commissioning of this new bridge, being constructed by UP state bridge corporation and based on the German technology of cable-stay bridge, the commuters would be saving around one hour of their travel time.Presently, those travelling towards Chitrakoot or MP from the state capital or from Raebareli and Pratapgrah have to cross river Ganga either at the old bridge near Kade Dham (which joins the GT road at Saini) or they have to come all the way up to Prayagraj and cross Phaphamau while moving towards MP and Chitrakoot from Naini.
However, now after this new bridge, which is around 90% complete, the commuters would be able to save around 50km of distance and thereby reducing the travel time. For accessing the bridge, the commuters would have to follow the road towards Kareti ghat (from the by-pass near Kunda on Prayagraj-Lucknow highway), cross Ganga by the upcoming bridge and the road would bring them straight to Shahzadpur at Kaushambi. From there, the road towards Chitrakoot via Muratganj has to be followed. Traffic is expected to start on the new bridge by the end of December.
“The government had approved the construction of this 1272 meters long bridge over river Ganges, between Kareti Ghat to Shahzadpur, in July 2019 and the construction of the bridge was undertaken by us and now the bridge is almost 94% complete,” said the project director, Subhash Pratap Bagri.
Around Rs 248 crore was spent on the construction of this bridge. Like the new bridge over river Yamuna at Prayagraj, this bridge is constructed in the form of an Extradosed cable-stay bridge of German technology. The bridge is supported over 13 pillars.
Although there was some delay in the construction of the bridge due to the first and second wave of the pandemic and the work had come to a standstill for several days but still, the corporation has made up the lost time and managed to minimise the delay by just a couple of months.
The bridge would also come as a boon for denizens of the Sangam city who stay in the city west. This bridge would reduce the distance between Prayagraj-Lucknow by around 50km as they don’t have to travel all the way to Phaphamau to go towards Lucknow or Raebareli. Rather, they would now have to go towards Bharwari and Shahzadpur and cross Ganga to reach the Kunda by-pass and move towards Lucknow.