From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The first bridge on Brahmaputra River that was built to bridge the surface communication route between Northeast India and the rest of the country, has completed 50 years in service and deserves a fitting Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Known as Saraighat Bridge, a road-cum-rail bridge over the river Brahmaputra in Guwahati, has stood witness to the developments in the region and Assam in particular carrying heavy loads of vehicles and trains round the clock sans any break.
Saraighat is a historical place where fight between the Mughals and the Ahoms(rulers of assam from the 12th century for about 600 years) took place where the Ahoms triumphed.
It was in June, 1963, the first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the bridge in a grand function held at the nearby Maligaon railway station.
The Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway is responsible for maintenance of the road-cum-rail bridge.
A spokesman of the NF Railway informed that that the structure of the age-old bridge which is named after a village called Sarai in the locality, has remained intact even after five decades of service.
The NF Railway hired the services of experts of the IIT-Guwahati on April this year to examine the effect of age on the structure of the bridge, the most vital surface link between the N-E and the rest of the country.
The experts found that the structure of the bridge was completely intact.
The railway source informed that all the 11 pillars of the bridge were found in sound condition.
The bridge has been found fit enough to continue serve the people for years to come.
Besides a huge volume of vehicular and passenger traffic, the bridge bears the weight of 85 goods and passenger trains running over it every day.
Construction of Saraighat Bridge was started in January , 1959 and Hindustan Construction Company completed construction of the bridge in September, 1962, the year India fought a war with China.
The 1492 meter (1.5 km) bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 10.65 crore at that time.
A diesel engine was run on the rail bridge on September 23, in 1962 and goods train service was started on October 31 same year.