Minister pulls up senior engineers at Damodar riverbed project
The Statesman | 29 April 2025
Ahead of the monsoon season, state authorities are aiming to complete refurbishment of the carriageway of the Durgapur Barrage. Today, the state irrigation minister inspected the one-kilometre temporary causeway laid across the Damodar riverbed to facilitate transitional traffic movement.
An agency from Mumbai has scheduled 75 days for the installation of steel joints and the laying of a fresh bitumen blanket on the Barrage’s 692-metre carriageway. However, irrigation minister Dr Manas Bhunia instructed that this schedule be reduced to 45 days. Dr Bhunia conducted a physical inspection of the causeway alongside senior irrigation officials, as well as Bankura district police and administration officers.
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At a meeting last week, the state’s chief secretary had directed officials that the entire refurbishment should be completed by 15 June. Dr Bhunia reinforced this today, stating: “We are ready to accept any available technological support to expedite the work and, if required, the participation of the IITs is also welcome.”
The Barrage’s carriageway was originally laid in 1955 and has not undergone major renovation since. The current carriageway width is 6.70 metres, which Debashis Sengupta, chief engineer, irrigation, noted was “slightly less than the average width of 7.50 metres.” He added: “It’s a 65 mm bitumen layer, but under our Plan B, we have decided to lay a 40 mm layer to maintain riding comfort for a year.”
During the refurbishment work, only passenger buses are permitted to use the Barrage’s carriageway, while a temporary causeway has been laid on the riverbed for two- and four-wheelers.
Dr Bhunia blamed the previous Left Front government for past lapses and criticised the NDA government for failing to provide funding support for such renovation works. He said: “Since 2014, they have not provided a single penny, yet we have spent Rs 585 crore from budget funds to maintain 290 km of carriageway.”
The minister expressed anger when he could not find his departmental engineers from Bankura present at the inspection site. Rebuking the officials, he said: “Tell them that I will not spare them. How dare they sit in air-conditioned rooms while their minister is inspecting the riverbed?”
The refurbishment work is expected to cost Rs 5 crore, officials said.