Finance dept allocates funds for first major repair work of Vidyasagar Setu in 27 years

Kolkata: The state Finance department has allocated funds for the repair of second Hooghly bridge, popularly known as Vidyasagar Setu. The steel cables and the bearings of the bridge have corroded and Rs 204 crore will be required for repairing the same.

"RITES has been assigned the responsibility to do the repair work. 50 percent of the total cost will be borne by the state Finance department and another 50 percent by Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC). Work is expected to start soon," said Kanaia Lal Agarwal, vice-chairman of HRBC, the commissioning agency of the bridge.

The Vidyasagar Setu is a cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of a little over 457 metre and a 35 metre wide deck. Construction started in 1978 and the bridge was inaugurated on October 1992. A consortium comprising Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop built the structure. The toll bridge, which connects Kolkata with Howrah, is regarded as an engineering marvel.

According to sources in HRBC, corrosion has affected a dozen stay cables and all of them will be replaced during the repair work. The bridge is supported by 152 stay cables that run from the tower to the surface of the bridge, providing a lifting thrust to the deck and thus preventing it from falling.

"This is for the first time in 27 years of its commissioning that the cables of Vidyasagar Setu are being replaced. Apart from the cables, more than 30 bearings of the bridge which are responsible for absorbing the load of traffic on the deck, will be replaced as well," a senior HRBC official said, adding that water seepage into the wires during rain have led to the corrosion of the bearings. It has not yet been decided whether the bridge needs to be closed during the repair work, but engineers are looking into whether work can be done during the night so that commuters are not inconvenienced.