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A mountain foot bridge for civil applications developed by R&DE (E), a premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory, was handed over for public use by R Chidambaram, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government, near the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Avinash Chander, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Secretary Department of Defence, said in his message, “DRDO is an innovation-based organisation and ensures that its technologies, developed for the armed forces, are useful for public welfare as well. The technology for making foot bridges for the armed forces, developed by the DRDO, can be utilised to bring relief to flood-affected people. Handing over of two such bridges is an example of taking technologies to the people for the benefit of the masses.''
He added that the “low-cost mountain foot bridges, costing just Rs 6.5 lakh each, being easy to transport and deploy are expected to be of great help, by making disaster hit regions accessible, and thus facilitate relief and rescue work.”'
The 13.5 m steel bridge for civil applications has a 1.5 m wide pathway, and can be deployed in two-three hours. Its launch does not require accesses to the far bank or elaborate site preparations and is, therefore, ideal in disaster situations, DRDO said in a statement.
The original bridge developed by DRDO for the armed forces to suit rapid deployment in mountainous regions, is capable of bridging gaps of up to 35 m. The components of the military bridge, made of high strength aluminium alloy, are portable and weigh less than 18 kg each. The bridge is design to withstanding conditions prevailing in glacial regions.
Though it is designed to prevent any appreciable accumulation of fresh snow, it has been designed for accumulation of up to 250 mm of fresh snow, having density up to 200 kg/m3. The military bridging system has successfully completed user-assisted technical trials in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
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