Opening of new Western flank of Mahatma Gandhi Setu ,Patna: A new life to historical bridge

    Gandhi Setu (bridge), the lifeline bridge connecting Patna with North Bihar is one of the longest river bridge in India on the Ganges. It was planned in 60s , construction started in 72 and finally two lane western flank was completed in 1982. Before this bridge the common mode of transport was with passenger  steamer from Pahleja Ghat on Hajipur side and Mahendru in Patna and also a ship for carrying vehicles runs from Pahleja to LCT ghat in Patna. And by road only connection was through a bridge on down stream  Ganges in Mokama (Rajendra Setu) opened in 1959,75 km from Patna. The Ganges during that time used to be flowing through out the year. 

    I fondly remember that Indian Railways used to run regular double storey medium size steamer from Pahleja to Patna. Pahleja ghat was railway and bus terminal on northern side connected from Muzaffarpur and Sonepur side. The other company which runs both passenger and vehicle steamer was of Baccha babu of Sonepur. The passenger steamer of Baccha babu was smaller than railways steamer.Railways used to issue one ticket  from Muzaffarpur to Mahendru Patna for both train and steamer.It was childhood  fun by traveling through steamer and seeing uninterrupted in to the vast Ganges from the top front deck of steamer  and its riverine beauty, small settlements on bank side,fishing ,small boats, crossing with another steamer ,spotting dolphins and eating omelette and toast on the steamer. Night time travelling was more quiet and imaginative in dark with distant dim fluctuating light seems like traveling with you on both sides of banks and also getting away from Mahendru terminal Patna. The terminal building at Mahendru , Patna was much developed and permanent whereas Pahleja terminal was not so developed. Traveling time from Pahleja to Mahendru was less due to direction of travel from upstream to downstream. The ship carrying vehicle was faster than passenger ship.

    It all changes when in 1982 Gandhi Setu or Ganga bridge was open for traffic, the distance and ease of traveling greatly reduced and helped in development of North Bihar but also the capital of Bihar Patna started getting crowded by regular visitors and also families started settling for better amenities and living conditions , mainly good schools, colleges, hospitals and public facilities like urban roads and consistent supply of electricity. Before opening of the bridge Patna used to be a moderate size clean capital city but it all become the past .Patna started attracting huge migration from north Bihar and the haphazard development of Patna was kick started and true to this day.

    The Gandhi Setu was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982 (western flank) and the length of bridge was 5.75 km divided into 45 intermediate spans and one end span on both end.The width was 6 mtr for each flank  with pathway on both sides and both western and eastern flanks are independent with no connection. Eastern flank was open to traffic in 1987. The design standard was IRC 70 R loading. Each span has two cantilever beam on both  side free to move at ends. A commemorative stamp was issued by postal department in 2007 for Gandhi Setu.  The initial cost was less than 40  crores but I remember the final cost was around 90 crores and the Gammon India was the builder of the bridge.It was not a traditional steel truss bridge like Howrah or Rajendra setu but balanced cantilever cement concrete bridge . The concept was new and I guess first time in India such a long bridge has been planned on this concept.

    However it was fine till 2000 but after the opening of Indian economy in 91 and exponential increase in passenger and goods traffic on the bridge , the planned design load and capacity of bridge was surpassed several fold coupled with poor maintenance and that was the beginning of decaying of western flank first and later eastern flank well before its planned life.In normal days roughly 1 lacs vehicle  passed through this bridge.The excessive structural and moving load made this bridge vulnerable and also the design. Similar bridges constructed with same principle started developing cracks so in short it was both design,construction,maintenance and capacity failure. Repairing started taking place but in a casual manner and that make the structure more vulnerable year by year. Therefor the major reason of failure of this bridge was ,

-Poor maintenance

-not taking corrective action in time

-heavy wear and tear by unprecedented increase in traffic 

-technical design issues

-poor construction and supervision

-use of poor quality material and pre-stressing 

-poorly designed expansion joints

-regular cracks in top coat etc

all of the above made the structure most vulnerable.

    There was no thinking how to safeguard the failing super structure of the bridge and unabated traffic further reduced the life of this bridge . Several crores rupees were spent in its repairing several times  but to no avail. Finally western flank was closed and all the traffic was shifted to eastern flank. The traffic congestion and regular jam on Gandhi setu  was a daily nightmare. The lifeline become choked and it was a tough punishment to cross this bridge.Even during Corona lock down western flank used to be jammed.

    Finally after too much hue and cry, back and forth , NHAI sent expert team for the inspection and it was found that the substructure and piers are in good shape but super structure of both flanks need to be replaced. NHAI took this in their hand and  AFCONS were give the contract. Work on western flank was started by removing torn out concrete super structure  and replaced by new designed steel truss superstructure on the same pier and today the all new western flank was inaugurated and open for the traffic. Now work will start on eastern flank.

In the mean time a new setu parallel to Gandhi setu has also been planned and new road cum rail JP setu west of Gandhi setu  connecting Digha , Patna to Pahleja inaugurated in 2017 (road bridge) eased some traffic on Gandhi setu.

Today is the important day for the people of Bihar.

GoI and particularly NHAI did a commendable job in restoring the western flank. It was possible due to personal interest taken by surface transport minister Sri Nitin Gadkari.