Bharuch Civil Engineers Forum

1. Bharuch Civil Engineers Forum • BCEF was founded on 1st May’ 2001 by a group of Civil Engineers working in rapidly growing industrial area of Bharuch and Ankleshwar. • BCEF is registered under Society Act 1860. Regn. No. GUJ/ 847/ Bharuch. • BCEF is having the membership strength of 65 Civil Engineers working with industries, government bodies, builders and professional engineers.

2. Bharuch Civil Engineers Forum OBJECTIVES OF BCEF • To serve the society for better living conditions and help the local administration in creating and maintaining good infrastructure. • To develop quality awareness for durable civil engineering structures. • To create environmental awareness. • To educate technicians and supervisors for good construction practices. • To bridge the available local resources with the suitable new developments. • Set up a Rural development cell for awareness regarding water, roads, housing. • To interact amongst the civil engineers for exchange of ideas, information, know- how etc.

3. Bharuch Civil Engineers Forum As an effort to comply with the objectives, BCEF has done following activities during last 18 months • A seminaron “Modern Techniques of repairs & maintenance of buildings” by Dr. Manjrekar of Sunanda Specialty Chemicals ltd. • A product introduction programme for Recron 3S from Reliance IndustriesLtd. • Discussion on Causes and Effects of earthquake by Dr. N C Vyas of SVR Engineering college Surat.

4. Bharuch Civil Engineers Forum • A panel discussion on “ Augmentation of connectivity between Bharuch and Ankleshwar - strengthening of Golden bridge or a new bridge.” The experts on panel were (1) Er. G N Tambe, partner of M/S K B Mehta & co. (2) Er. A D Bhobe,Consultant to Maharashtra state Govt. for Bandra - Worli sea link project. (3) Er. TSB Singh, Chief Engineer, Western Railway (4) Er. M Majdabadi, Lea International, Canada- consultant to Gujarat State govt. for post earthquake inspection of bridges. The discussion was chaired and concluded by Mr. Ravi Saxena, Chairman of Gujarat Infrastructure Development., in presence of District Collector, Ms. Anju Sharma.

5. Bharuch District • Population as per Census : 13.70,104 • Total no. of Registered vehicles: Two Wheelers : 1,12,821 Three Wheelers : 10,074 Four Wheelers(LMV) : 15,768

6. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • One of the recommendation was that since the golden bridge has outlived its service life, it is necessary to construct another bridge or Cause way cum weir on river Narmada. • Golden Bridge should be preserved as Heritage site.

7. Major problems faced by Populace of Bharuch District • Salinity ingress, making the soil salty and infertile. • Drinking Water, because of salinity and water scarcity. • Transportation between Ankleshwar and Bharuch. • Scarcity of Water for Industries.

8. Probable Solution to the problems • One of the recommendation suggested by panel of Bridge Engineers is “ Since the 120 years old Golden Bridge has out lived its service life, it is necessary to have other alternative for Transportation between Bharuch and Ankleshwar. “ One of the solutions is Causeway cum Weir on River Narmada because this alternative has many other advantages.

9. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada Benefits of having Causeway cum weir on Narmada river between Ankleshwar & Bharuch Surface Transportation : Approx.. 15000 Vehicles commute, between Ankleshwar and Bharuch due to industries and trade. • It is absolutely not feasible to transit by National Highway with so much of traffic.

10. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • Industries : Asia’s largest chemical industries zone of Ankleshwar, Panoli, Zagadia is facing the water scarcity. The increasing water demand can be fulfilled only with this solution for continual industrial growth. Dahej mega estate also is benefited for its water requirement. • Irrigation :Approx..Hectares land gets irrigation to increase the productivity.

11. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • Salinity: Approx.. hectares of cultivable land is affected by SALNITY INGRESS. By having water containment in upstream this severe problem can be tackled. Agreat advantage in Agriculture. • Drinking Water: Accute shortage of drinking water in Bharuch and Ankleshwar and surrounding villages can be solved.

12. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • Costal highway missing link: Dahanu Dwarka coastal highway missing link can be established. The distance between Surat and Dahej can be reduced by 40Km. Distance between two major industrial estates of Ankleshwar and Dahej reduces by 40 Km. Making the transportation less costly.

13. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • River Front Development: Bharuch district is having tremendous potential of Tourism Development. River front development can be undertaken on very large scale to promote tourism • Fisheries: A big volume of fisheries industries development will be possible.

14. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • Effluent Pipe line: There is a proposed Effluent Pipeline project by Bharuch Eco Aqua Infrastructure Company for draining treated effluent into deep sea at the cost of Rs. 122 crores. The cost can be reduced to a great extent by using this route of laying pipeline to sea.

15. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • Approx. cost of the proposal: • Cost of the similar project on river Tapi at Surat : • Cost of the similar project on river Mahi at Vadodara :

16. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada • The money invested can be recovered in very short duration from:

17. Cause way cum weir on river Narmada OVERALL BENEFITS • Environment protection and promotion • Social Development • Economic/ Industrial growth • Indirect/ direct employment generation • Serving for overall welfare and development of people of Bharuch.