PM inaugurates country’s longest cable-stayed bridge

 

 

 

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated ‘Sudarshan Setu’, the country’s longest cable-stayed bridge of 2.32 km, on the Arabian sea connecting Beyt Dwarka island to mainland Okha in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district. Modi began his day by offering prayers at Lord Sri Krishna temple at Beyt Dwarka. He later inaugurated the four-lane cable-stayed bridge called the ‘Sudarshan Setu’, which boasts a unique design, featuring a footpath adorned with verses from Srimad Bhagavad Gita and images of Lord Krishna on both sides. The 2.32 km bridge, including 900 metres of central double span cable-stayed portion and a 2.45 km long approach road, has been constructed at a cost of Rs 979 crore, as per an official release.

 

The four-lane 27.20 metre wide bridge has 2.50 metre wide footpaths on each side, it said. The bridge, which was known as ‘Signature Bridge’, has been renamed as ‘Sudarshan Setu’ or Sudarshan Bridge. Beyt Dwarka is an island near Okha port, which is nearly 30 km from Dwarka town, where the famous Dwarkadhish temple of Lord Krishna is situated. At present, devotees visiting the temple at Beyt Dwarka can travel only during the day by boat, while the construction of the bridge will allow them to travel at all times, officials said. Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 4,150 crore in Gujarat’s Dwarka on Sunday. PM Modi was felicitated by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel with a miniature of Dwarkadhish temple.

 

The project inaugurated by the PM, includes a pipeline project at Vadinar involving the replacement of existing offshore lines, abandoning the existing pipeline end manifold (PLEM), and relocating the entire system to a nearby new location. Modi will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for 200 healthcare infrastructure projects worth over Rs 11,500 crore across 23 States and Union Territories. PM inaugurated five All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rajkot (Gujarat), Bathinda (Punjab), Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh), Kalyani (West Bengal), and Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) later in the day. He inaugurated a medical college of JIPMER at Karaikal, Puducherry, and a 300-bed satellite centre of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical and Educational Research (PGIMER) in Sangrur, Punjab, among many other health projects spread across the country, the statement said.