A controlled implosion was used to destroy an ancient bridge built in the early 1990s in the Chandani Chowk neighbourhood of Pune, according to officials.
In the Chandani Chowk neighbourhood of the city, the bridge across the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway (NH4) was destroyed at about 1 in the morning on Sunday.
After the demolition, a number of trucks and earthmover machines were put to use to bring down the hanging structures and lift the material away.
The planned demolition of the bridge generated a great deal of curiosity among the local people.
The bridge was demolished as part of a large-scale development project at Chandni Chowk that aims to improve the flow of traffic at the crucial intersection. The crossroads will eventually get a multi-level flyover, and work is already being done to that end.
The locals were extremely curious about the proposed removal of the bridge.
“The bridge was demolished at 1 am on Sunday through a controlled blast and everything was executed as per the plan. Now, we have pressed earthmover machines, forknails, and trucks to clear the debris from the spot,” said Chirag Chheda, co-owner of Edifice Engineering.
The bridge was demolished by a team from Edifice Engineering and NHAI officials. According to officials, this is the same business that destroyed the Supertech Twin Towers in Noida during the latter week of August of this year.
Due to the incident, all vehicular traffic in the region was stopped and rerouted.
When asked why some of the bridge’s support columns did not entirely collapse, one of Edifice’s chief engineers replied that the bomb had destroyed the concrete, leaving just the steel bars.
“Once the steel bars are removed using the machines, the remaining structure will also come down,” he said.
He continued by saying that more steel was used in building the bridge than they had anticipated.
Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, inspected the ongoing bridge construction at Chandani Chowk from the air on Friday.