Shelf Designs · Dawki, West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya
Dawki Bridge
A 125 m steel through arch — competitive, and led by aesthetics.
- Location
- Dawki, West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya
- Client
- Meghalaya PWD
- PCI's role
- Design
- Structure
- Steel through arch with steel-concrete composite deck
- Span
- 125 m
- River
- Umngot
- Replaces
- British-era suspension bridge (1932)
A new crossing of the Umngot, one of India's clearest rivers, replacing a fragile British-era suspension bridge on a strategic India–Bangladesh trade route.
The bridge at Dawki is the last Indian settlement before crossing over to Bangladesh, on the way to Sylhet. The Umngot river is contained in a gorge section almost 30 m deep, and it abruptly fans out on the plains of Bangladesh just downstream of the site.
The existing Dawki bridge across River Umngot (Bridge No. 51/3) on NH 40 (old) at km 161 is a single-lane suspension bridge with an RCC deck slab. The repair and rehabilitation of the existing bridge have also been undertaken, and now traffic is plying in a restricted manner up to a load capacity of 12 R. It is proposed now to construct a bridge over the River Umngot, just near to the Indo-Bangladesh international border. Keeping the above in view, it is contemplated to go for an innovative type of bridge consisting of a steel arch with a steel-concrete composite type deck of single span of 125 m and curved approaches. This project has been approved by MoRTH. Later, due to alignment shifting as part of another package, the site has been shifted downstream and the proposal has been revised.