Howrah Bridge The Gateway To Calcutta

Joydip Sur

Together with Victoria Memorial, it is the most familiar landmark of the city. It is also considered to be the gateway to Calcutta, particularly for those boarding off at Howrah Station. In this edition of Calcutta Chronicle, we pay tribute to the bridge ‘without nuts and bolts’ which links the twin cities of Howrah & Calcutta and also its predecessor, a pontoon bridge which was not expected to last more than two decades but ended up serving for 69 years.

Our colonial masters had no intention of building bridges with the native population but when they finally departed from Indian soil they left their mark on the face of India with crisscrossing railway lines, roads and innumerable bridges and one their finest farewell gift was the cantilever bridge on River Hooghly, then known as the New Howrah Bridge.

The mighty rivers, particularly the capricious Hooghly, the soft nature of the soil were great impediments to the construction of bridges in this part of India. Hence it was one of the reasons why railway link could not be brought to the heart of the city and abruptly stopped at the other side of River Hooghly in Howrah. But ever since the construction of railway lines begun in 1850s (initially till Ranigunj and later extended all the way to Delhi), river traffic increased manifold. There were accidents particularly during rainy season, goods were damaged due to transit and of course the rising transportation cost, all called for the construction of a bridge.

The need for the bridge led to a formation of a committee in 1855-56 but the impediments were great- the soft soil required the foundations to be really deep and hence the cost would increase greatly; the tides of the unpredictable Hooghly and finally shipping would be inconvenienced. The idea was abandoned but was again revived in 1868. Finally, it was decided that the bridge would be constructed by the government but handed over to a trust for maintenance.

It was Sir Bradford Leslie who was entrusted with the job of designing and different parts of bridge was constructed in England then shipped to Calcutta to be put together. Opened to public in October, 1874 it was a floating pontoon bridge which could be opened at the centre allowing shipping vessels to pass through. There were 26 flat bottomed iron pontoons, each 80 feet long and 26 feet wide placed at a gap of 50 feet and moored by heavy chains to a cable which ran between the two banks. Timbers were placed on the pontoons to construct the carriageway. The bridge was then 1528 feet long and 62 feet wide. There were wide sidewalks on both the sides for the pedestrians.

On each side two pontoons were moveable which allowed the middle of the bridge to be unfastened, mostly at night time, to cut down on the inconvenience of the general traffic. The closing of the bridge was notified through newspapers and a ferry steamer was kept, its cost borne by the railway authorities to carry people when the bridge was closed. It was handed to the Port Commissioners for its upkeep and initially, a small toll was levied which was abolished subsequently. So, do not fret at the toll plazas, the British had introduced it long before Vidyasagar Setu was envisaged.

LSSO Malley and M Chakravarti, writing on Howrah in the District Gazetteers observed a toll of Re 1 was later imposed for every 100 maunds of goods was paid by East Indian Railway to the Port Commissioners generated revenue for its upkeep. Montague Massey thought to be a “boon” to residents on both banks of River Hooghly.

In 1879, the bridge was illuminated by fixing electric poles at the centre. This was done by using the electricity rendered from the dynamo at the Mallick Ghat Pumping Station. Bullock carts, rickshaws and horse drawn carriages formed the majority of the traffic as cars were few.

Meanwhile, as Howrah turned into Sheffield of the East, traffic increased with the construction of Howrah Station in 1906 and the wooden parts of the bridge required repair at more frequent intervals, the need for a more permanent solution was felt, perhaps boosted by successes of ambitious bridge building projects, elsewhere. Several grand schemes were suggested, including a suspension bridge, twin bridges, a single span arch and a cantilever span with a lifting section in the middle which would have been ridiculously expensive. The Howrah Bridge project became famous around the globe in engineering circles and was known as a ‘knotty and interesting problem.’

Finally the cost effective cantilever plan was adopted and a firm, Rendel, Palmer and Tritton designed the bridge while construction was done by a British firm, Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company Ltd. The construction of the new bridge commenced in 1936. Tata Iron and Steel Company supplied majority of the high tensile quality of steel required while it was fabricated at four shops in the city.

When the two monoliths were being sunk to form the foundation of the main piers, the silt threw up ancient boats, cannons and coins. Each day, they were sank a foot or more but on one particular night the mammoth structure crashed in more than two feet, causing a minor quake which was recorded in the seismograph kept at Khidderpore.

Meanwhile, the Second World War begun, threatening the very construction, particularly because Calcutta faced the peril of Japanese invasion. However, the bridge was completed in 1942 and opened to public in February 1943.

It consumed 26,500 tons of steel and was constructed at an approximate cost of Rs. 250 lakhs. It expands 4.8 inches in the heat during the day and contracts the same length during the night. Another peculiarity is that the bridge bends over slightly in strong winds, designed keeping in mind the cyclones and to withstand earthquakes.

The bridge was renamed as Rabindra Setu on June 14, 1965 in memory of the Nobel Laureate.

The tram services have since then been discontinued, heavy vehicles banned to reduce overstressing but the bridge continues to be the busiest despite the construction of its twin, the Vidyasagar Setu. It has suffered occasional damages (when a barge hit its shafts) and weathered the ravages of time, remaining a favourite haunt of the nuttier among us. We may ramble trivia about its being the sixth longest bridge of its kind but it has been the city’s icon captured in the celluloid many a times (from Howrah Bridge to Mira Nair’s The Namesake and inextricably linked to our everyday life.

Fast Facts   

• Suspension type balanced cantilever bridge
• Central span 1,500 feet between centres of main towers
• Anchor arm 325 feet each
• Cantilever arm 468 feet each
• Suspended span 564 feet
• Main towers are 280 feet high above the monoliths and 76 feet apart at the top
• Bridge deck width 71 feet with two footpaths of 15 feet either side
• The main tower is founded with single monoliths which are 55.31 x 24.8 m in plan with 21 chambers
• Monoliths at Calcutta and Howrah side are founded 31.41 m and 26.53 m in below ground level respectively.
• Minimum headroom in carriageway is 5.8 m
• Freeboard for river traffic is 8.8 m