EXPLORING KOLKATA 1

SECOND HOOGHLY BRIDGE 

STORY : Vidyasagar Setu (commonly known as the Second Hooghly Bridge), is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Howrah to its twin city of Kolkata. The bridge is a toll bridge for all vehicles. It is one of the longest bridges of its type in India and one of the longest in Asia.
The bridge is named after the 19th century Bengali reformist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

 

The bridge also has sister bridges over the river at different points, namely the Howrah Bridge (Rabindra Setu), the Vivekananda Setu and the Nivedita Setu.

The Vidyasagar Setu is a cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of a little over 457 metres, and a deck 35 metres wide. Construction started in 1978 and the bridge was finally inauguarated on the 10th of October, 1992. The commissioning agency was the Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC) and the contractors for the construction was the consortium of Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop also called BBJ. The construction was planned and supervised by the German engineers Schlaich Bergermann & Partner.