As per District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Pune district officials have completed the pre-demolition work of the bridge.
The NHAI has appointed Edifice Engineering Consultancy Company to conduct the demolition process. It is the same company which had carried out the successful demolition of the twin towers in Noida using explosives.
"The blast to carry out the demolition will take place at 2 am and within five to six seconds, the entire bridge will come down. Once the bridge is demolished, the next process to remove the debris from the highway will be carried out," Deshmukh added.
As per Deshmukh, the road will be closed from 11 pm on 1 October till 8 am on the next day. The bridge will be taken down at 2 am on October 2.
As per the information shared by Rahul Shrirame, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), the traffic diversions will be in place from 11 pm onwards on October 1.
The vehicular movement on the highway will be diverted.
"Heavy vehicles travelling from Mumbai to Bengaluru via National Highway 4 will be stopped near Talegaon while heavy vehicles in the opposite direction will be stopped at Khed Shivapur," Shrirame said.
"Light vehicles travelling towards Mumbai will be diverted from Khed Shivapur. They will be asked to travel via Warje, Katraj Old Tunnel or Navale Bridge. Those commuting to Pune from Mumbai can take alternate route via Somatne Phata, Aundh or Baner," he added.
Speaking about the pre-demolition work that has been carried out till now, Deshmukh told HindustanTimes that till now, around 1,300 holes, each of a depth of 1.5 metre, have been drilled into the old bridge structure and approximately 600 kg of explosives will be used for blasting purposes that have been bought from an authorised vendor from Pune.
"Also, the maximum (as per requirement) illumination will be carried out at the spot. Special equipment has been brought to monitor the vibrations that will occur during the blast for study purposes. Once the blasting is carried out at 2 am, the major task will be to remove the debris from the highway and for that, preparations have been made. For this work, four bulldozers, eight pocklain machines, and around 30 heavy vehicle trucks will be deployed for the removal of the debris along with over 100 labourers to carry out the demolition work," he further added.
(With inputs from PTI)
