The second Vivekananda Bridge opens today without virtually any hullabaloo. Some time back the bridge was to be inaugurated by no less a person than the Prime Minister, which the stature of the bridge rightly demands. But things changed at the last moment.
The PM is not coming and no one else is doing the honors in his place. The bridge is therefore opening whether or not it is formally inaugurated.
This was not to be the bridge’s fate when it was planned. From newspaper accounts what transpires is that while the bridge was being built the state government slept over its responsibility to build road infrastructure approaching the bridge at either end including the vital flyover at Dunlop.
Perhaps, as is their wont, the government officials thought the bridge would take forever to build like the Vidyasagar Setu (or 2nd Howrah Bridge) that took 14 years from 1978 to 1992 to be built by the state-owned Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC).
Their fond hopes were belied when the construction giant L&T took just 3 years starting from April 2004 to complete making the bridge. Now the government officials are finding no places to hide their faces.
Is the bridge a lesser technical hurdle, which is why it took just 3 years to complete?
On the contrary, the second Vivekananda Bridge is India’s first multi span, single-plane cable supported extra-dosed bridge with short pylons and seven continuous spans of 110 m, totaling a length of 880 m (2,887 feet).
The bridge, an architectural marvel, is 29 m wide and will be able to support 6 lanes of traffic, amounting to 40,000 vehicles per day.
Second Vivekananda Setu is a vital connector with NH-2, NH-6, and Durgapur Expressway on one side and NH-34, NH-35 and NSC Bose International Airport on the other side, not to speak of being another gateway to the city itself.
While completing the bridge within a punishing schedule speaks volumes of the capability of Larsen & Toubro, the episode once again exposes state government’s inability, callousness and worthlessness while living up to its task.
Incidentally, today is the birth centenary of Henning Holck-Larsen, the illustrious co-founder of the L&T, and later its Chairman Emeritus. Holck-Larsen received Padma Bhushan in 2002 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the growth of the Indian industry.
The Second Vivekananda Bridge’s opening today will be a fitting homage to the great man, notwithstanding government apathy and incapability.
Leave a Reply