Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered people’s committees around the country to check pedestrian and suspension bridges for safety and prevent unsafe ones from being used.
City and provincial authorities should use government funds and the road maintenance fund to improve existing bridges and build new ones to ensure public safety, he said.
He ordered them to appraise afresh bridges’ load-bearing capacity and put up appropriate signs and supervise construction work.
He instructed the Ministry of Transport to improve monitoring of the use of bridges.
The ministry has meanwhile investigated the substandard screws blamed for the tragic collapse of the Chu Va 6 Bridge in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau in February.
Following the collapse, it proposed construction of 186 bridges in remote districts inhabited by ethnic minorities to replace unsafe ones and this has been approved by the government.
The Ministry of transport and authorities in the northern mountain province of Dien Bien inaugurated a suspension bridge in Sam Lang village in Nam Po District on May 5.
The bridge, 100.4 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, was built by the Construction Company No.1 and Quang Trung Mechanics Company with funding from public contributions.
The Dien Bien Province Transport Authority said six more bridges are planned to be built.
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