(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Indias Defence Research & Development Organisation (Drdo) has developed a mountain foot bridge for civil applications that does not require access to the far bank and could be ideal in disaster situations like floods.
The bridge was handed over for public use by well-known scientist R Chidambaram who is the principal scientific adviser to the government near the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (Hesco) at Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Thursday.
Uttarakhand had been hit by devastating flash floods and landslides in mid-June last year leaving thousands dead and many more homeless.
The bridge Is an adaption of the 35 metre man-portable Mountain Foot Bridge (MFB) developed by Drdo for the armed forces for bridging dry and wet gaps up to 35m long with a pathway of 0.8m width especially for inaccessible high altitude regions.
After the Uttarakhand disaster of 2013 Avinash Chander head of Drdo and scientific adviser to the defence minister suggested to the Research and Development Establishment (R&DE) of Drdo at Pune in Maharashtra to develop foot bridges similar to the MFB for civil applications. He suggested that they be built with steel to keep costs low.
The 13.5m steel bridge for civil applications has a 1.5m wide pathway. It is launched using the launching system of the 35m MFB and is deployable within two to three hours.
“Its launch does not require accesses to far bank or elaborate site preparations and is therefore ideal in disaster situation” the ministry of defence said.
The original bridge successfully developed by Drdo for the armed forces for rapid deployment in mountainous regions is capable of bridging gaps up to 35m. The components of the military bridge made of high-strength aluminium alloy are man-portable and weigh less than 18kg each.
The bridge is designed to withstand conditions prevailing in glacial regions. Its man-portable launching system allows the bridge to be constructed from near-bank without any access to far-bank.
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