Kolkata is one of the three cities in India that boasts a Bascule bridge… besides the port towns of Chennai and Mumbai, not to forget such bridges further afield, notably the Tower Bridge across the Thames in London, in Sydney,
Adelaide and Antwerp. Regretfully, many in this country may be ignorant of its function and utility.

More the pity, therefore, that the structure across the Ganga in Kidderpore, which opens up between 2 at night and 4 in the morning each day ~ to allow ships to pass ~ has been dysfunctional since Tuesday when the two “spans” which go up didn’t come down for 22 hours to facilitate surface transport… beyond the time-frame for the bridge to
operate for the benefit of river traffic.

In the net, as the “spans” remained static, the city’s Bascule bridge was in suspended animation, resulting in total chaos in south-western Kolkata for the better part of the day. Forty-eight hours later, reports suggest that the bridge will be closed for six months to undertake repairs that have long been overdue.

Indeed, an overhaul of the bridge, which was commissioned in 1966, has been pending for more than a decade. Which brings us to the crux of the issue. For a 50-year-old bridge, a natural process of wear and tear was only inevitable.

There appears to be a lack of coordination between the river traffic wing of the Kolkata Port Trust and Kolkata Police, indeed the connection between maritime traffic and road connectivity.

The authorities would appear to have realised the urgency of an overhaul only after this week’s fiasco. Tuesday’s breakdown has been attributed to an electrical snag in the “control circuit”. This may have only hastened the dislocation.

Considering the pressure of road traffic in Kidderpore, the bridge needed to be serviced more frequently than
the others. It is more than obvious that the city’s Bascule has not ~ since 1966 ~ been accorded the attention
and care that it deserves.

As it turns out, this has been a critical lapse of KoPT, the custodian of a unique structure. Not that the condition was never monitored. But of an “action-taken report”, there is none.

In May 2016 and in July this year, the bridge had been inspected by engineers of the Austrian firm ~ Waagen-Biro Bridge System AG ~ which had constructed the bridge.

There is no indication yet when the overhaul will begin and reports that KoPT will take a call on the cost quoted ~ Rs. 25 crore ~will almost certainly delay the process further still.

A patchwork arrangement has been effected to facilitate both river traffic and road connectivity.

This doesn’t rule out another fiasco in the Ganga, however.