RAWALPINDI: The railway bridge near Bakery Chowk on Wednesday finally opened to traffic after its reconstruction.

Theroadhadbeeninneedof repair for more than two years and following its rehabilitation, people travelling to Raja Bazaar and Ganjmandi felt a sigh of relief.

A more than 500 metres stretch of the road had not been repaired for the last two years due to a tussle between Pakistan Railways and Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB).

Pakistan Railways asked the RCB and Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC)to repair the road on the railway bridge as it was being used for general traffic to connect cantonment areas with city areas.

Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) constructed the road adjacent to Passport offices in its limit last year. However, RCB took the initiative this year and constructed the 500 metres of road.

Pakistan Railways officials said that the bridge was in use of general traffic and the maintenance was the responsibility of RMC and RCB. He said that the administration had been writing letters to the civic bodies for the last two years, but they did not give a response.

`The bridge was meant tocater to the need of light traffic, but at present, it is being used for heavy traffic and the trucks enter the city area from this bridge which forced us to repair it to avoid any untoward situation,` he said.

On the other hand, RCB officials said that the bridge was the property of Pakistan Railways.

`It was constructed by Pakistan Railways and maintenance is also its responsibility so we did not launch any work on it in the past,` he said.

However, he said that the work had been completed on the road, and now we have started the work on the road along the marble factories, and it would also be constructed soon.