Over a century old, the Chakki Bridge, connecting Punjab with Himachal Pradesh in Una district was today swept away be a flash flood in Chakki River. Seven pillars of the 118 year old, 535 meter long bridge from the Punjab side was understood to have been washed away.
Satpal Sharma, an highway engineer said that about 100 meters of the otherwise busy bridge was washed in the wee hours. There has been no loss to human life or vehicle damage, he said. The flash flood appeared to have originated because of some heavy rains upstream.
Meanwhile traffic had been diverted through an alternate road that passed through Damtal. Only in February, this year chief minister Virbhadra Singh and union surface and transport minister TR Balu had laid the foundation stone of a Rs 21 crore, alternate bridge adjacent to the century old collapsed bridge at Chakki.
