Surat: The city of Surat which has whopping 105 bridges already in place will get 106th bridge soon. Iconic cable stayed bridge over river Tapi is almost ready for inauguration.

Surat Municipal Corporation(SMC) plans to decorate the bridge with attractive lighting facility on permenent basis at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore. The lighting will be in four colors and it will be dynamic. There will be a control centre which will give computerised command for various kinds of designer lighting. So if it’s Independence day, the bridge will have tri-color lighting, it it’s Diwali or Navratri, it will have multi color attractive decorative lighting.

The concept of cable stayed bridge was ideated in year 2007. Work order was given in year 2010 for Rs 143.64 crore bridge. The project was to complete in 30-month period but it has taken 96-month time for completion. The bridge is 918 meter long. 300 meter portion will be over the river. Groundbreaking for this project was performed in year 2010 just ahead of SMC elections. A Mumbai based company Gammon India was assigned Rs 107 crore works for the bridge. The project had delayed after Athwa side fly over span collapsed. Gammon India contract for construction of bridge was terminated. In July 2015, another agency Unique Construction was assigned Rs 63.84 crore works. Design consultancy for this project is L&T. The entire bridge will have 125 street light poles. The tallest pylon is 35 meter high while the longest cable is 163 meter long.

Footpath of the bridge will not have paver blocks but concrete pattern.

The cable used for the bridge was purchased fro OVM company of China. It underwent test at a laboratory in Chicago after six-month waiting period as there are only two laboratories in the world that do such kind of testing. SMC engineer Bharat Dalal and Akshay Pandya had witnessed such testing in which 10 lakh shocks were given to each cable for 8 days to check its durability and strength. Cable laying procedure took 7-month period during which Chinese engineers stayed in Surat.

There are total 20 cables used in this bridge. 300 meter portion is fixed over two pylons without any support on river portion. Pylon foundation is 40 meter deep inside the river bed. Of 20 cables, the longest is 163.75 meter while shortest is 44.97 meter. Each cable has 22 to 54 strand. Special anti vandalism system will be put close to 20 cables to protect them. Cables will be checked by contractor after every third month.