The Saraighat bridge over river Brahmaputra in Guwahati will be out of bounds for ‘selfie-shoots’ as the Kamrup district administration put a ban on stopping on the bridge.
The ‘nuisance’ started with the inauguration of the new bridge at Jalukbari on January 29. The district administration said that the measure will help get rid of unnecessary traffic jams and probable road accidents on both the bridges.
“We have seen that a section of travellers are creating disturbance to the traffic flow by parking their vehicles on the bridges, especially the new one. A lot of people were spotted taking selfies on the new bridge. This causes traffic jam and might invite road accidents,” said deputy commissioner M Angamuthu who is also the chairman of Regional Transport Authority (RTA).
Accordingly, the administration has prohibited parking on the old and new Saraighat bridges and declared these areas as ‘protected area’ for ‘no parking zone’ and ‘no selfie zone’ with immediate effect.
The new Saraighat bridge which was inaugurated formally for public on January 29 this year was built at a cost of Rs 475 crore. The foundation stone for the bridge was laid in October, 2006 and was supposed to be completed within three years.
After the inauguration of the bridge, people in large numbers were spotted on the bridge taking selfie. And it has been continuing over the months causing trouble for the commuters.
Violation of the district administration order shall be liable to be punished and imposed fine up to Rs 10,000.
“All of us were happy after the inauguration of the new bridge and everyone wanted to have a memory with the new bridge,” said Rakesh Deka, a business man who often travels through the bridge.
