The vehicular movement on the 325-meter-long Telmacho bridge has been completely suspended from Friday for the repair work of the bridge.

The movement of all kinds of vehicles including heavy vehicles like bus, truck, tipper, trailer and other smaller vehicles like SUV, motorcycles has been suspended for two days, December 4 and 5. The Telmacho bridge on the Damodar river connects Dhanbad and Bokaro.

Confirming the development, Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner, Uma Shankar Singh said, "All traffic between Dhanbad and Bokaro has been diverted on Birsa bridge passing through Digwadih and Mohalbani area of Dhanbad for the two days during which the maintenance as well as load testing work of the bridge will be carried out.”

“The other alternative route for movement is a diversion ahead of Mahuda More through Telmacho village and it can also be used for vehicles heading towards Chandrapura in Bokaro,” said Singh.

This is the second suspension of traffic on the Telmacho bridge since 2017. A comprehensive repair of the bridge was carried out from September 13 to September 22, 2017, after suspending traffic for 10 days.

All this, as the bridge had developed crack on March 6, 2017, on three different places between pole number 1 and 3 as a portion of the bridge fell.

Established in 1984 on river Damodar, the Tel is the main connecting link between Dhanbad and Ranchi through Bokaro through which more than 30,000 small and large vehicles pass through the bridge every day.

Before the comprehensive repair of 2017, minor repair work on the bridge was conducted on August 9, 2015, during which the traffic was diverted.

At present, all heavy vehicles including buses and trucks running between Dhanbad and Bokaro pass-through Chandankiyari crossing through the Birsa bridge on river Damodar in Amlabad area of Damodar, which is 15 km longer than the Dhanbad-Bokaro distance through Telmacho bridge.

The heavy vehicle movement remained diverted for more than six months from March 6, 2017, to September 22, 2017 till the completion of comprehensive repair work and only the movement of cars, SUVs, bikes were allowed from the Telmacho bridge while other vehicles movement remained diverted on Birsa bridged.

Shankar Singh, manager of a pharmaceutical company- marketing division in Dhanbad said, “I had to cancel the doctor’s appointment in Bokaro for two days on December 4 and 5 due to the suspension of traffic on Telmacho bridge as it would have been an arduous journey travelling through the Birsa bridge through Chandankihyari.”