Rajahmundry, Oct 6th:  The existing Road cum Rail Bridge is unable to handle the increasing traffic as no of vehicles carrying goods and passengers are increasing day by day. 34 year old bridge connecting Kovvur to Rajahmundry was repaired three years ago with a cost of Rs 2 crores, as the vibrations in the bridge are increasing the government decided to construct the largest road bridge.

      The new bridge would be the largest bridge in Asia coming across Godavari River stretching about 15 km connecting Kovvur and Rajahmundry. This bridge would be the vital link between Chennai and Kolkata getting connected to the national highway 5 for carrying passengers and goods to Kolkata. The bridge would be 4 km stretch across the water with 2 km approach road on the Kovvur side and 9 km on the Konthamur road.

      This project would cost nearly 800 crores of which centre would bear 20% of the cost. The project was under taken by Gamini India and aims to complete in 3 years. The roads and building department is acquiring land for construction of approach roads of which some of the land was acquired. Once the road bridge is completed it would reduce 40 km distance between Vizag and Vijayawada.

     Mr. Ramesh Babu, engineer of the roads and building department said that the centre is proposing to develop the four lanes NH to 6 lanes NH and for this reason the volume of the vehicles would be increased to a greater extent. The archaeology deputy director Mr. Rama Krishna said that, “they have sent the proposal to the central railway and waiting for their response”. The bridge also contains platform for the pedestrians and benches for the visitors.