Patna, May 23: For Sudarshan Prasad, the colossal Koilwar Bridge over the mighty Sone is divinity personified.

“Yeh Vishwakarma Bhagwan bahut mazboot hain. (This Lord Vishwakarma is very strong),” the 55-year-old barber said while attending to a customer at his small shop in Ara located right next to the huge 1,440-metre steel structure that was built over a century ago by the British in Ara.

Talk about the bridge and Sudarshan folds his hands in obeisance to the engineering marvel. “I have been running this shop for over 20 years. All these years, I have never seen the bridge shaking, even once, or closing down even for two days for maintenance. But look at the condition of the Mahatma Gandhi Setu that was built so recently. It is a different story altogether.”

With the state government talking big on building bridges — the latest being three new ones coming over the Ganges in the next six years — it is an irony that the Koilwar Bridge built about 100 years ago still stands strong, while the Mahatma Gandhi Setu is in a shambles barely 30 years since its construction.

The Koilwar Bridge, which connects Patna with western Bihar and Utter Pradesh, is a road-cum-rail steel structure over the Sone and managed by the Indian Railways.

On the other hand, the 5.575-km Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a concrete bridge over the Ganges and connects Patna with north Bihar.

It was constructed by the Centre and thrown open to the public in May 1982. It is at present being maintained by the road construction department.

A railway engineer, who agreed to talk to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said any concrete bridge should have a life span of at least 60 years.

“There should not be a comparison between the Koilwar Bridge and the Mahatma Gandhi Setu because the two are different structures altogether. While the Koilwar Bridge has a steel structure, the Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a concrete one. But we know that a concrete bridge needs less maintenance and it should be in a perfect operational condition for over 60 years. But the reality is that the Koilwar Bridge, which is a steel structure and requires more maintenance, is standing tall without any major hiccup for over 100 years. There are some serious issues with the Mahatma Gandhi Setu when it comes to the quality of materials used while constructing it,” the official said. He added that the Setu had started to shake since early 2000.

“Its cables fail all the time. The western lane of the bridge is in a shambles with springs coming out. No one seemed to care about the bridge when the problems first started. And when all such things are happening, the Centre and the state have been busy arguing over allocation of funds for its maintenance. Though maintenance of the bridge has started of late, a lot of damage has been done because of the delay,” the official said.

Residents taking the Setu, too, have some sorry experiences to share.

“It takes over five hours to cross it because of snarl. And this is an everyday story. Maintenance work on the bridge is going on at snail’s pace and it could be years before things get back to order,” Sujit Anand, a resident of Muzaffarpur, told The Telegraph.

On the contrary, a drive along the Koilwar Bridge is smooth and, at the same time, exciting for motorists.

“The two single lanes on either side of the bridge are meant for heavy and light vehicles. You can describe it as a double-decker bridge with the railway tracks passing above it. On each side of the bridge, policemen maintain traffic flow. I remember that there was a problem once around 10 years ago on the bridge and it was closed down for a while. But since then, it has been perfect. Maintenance work is done round the year in terms of checking its structure and painting. Earlier, many trucks used to line up near the pillars along the banks of the Sone to collect sand. The trucks, too, have been moved away from the pillars as they posed risk to the bridge,” Tuta Khan, an Ara-based businessman, told The Telegraph.

Though the engineer said there should not be any comparison between the two bridges, the residents do not agree.

“Why shouldn’t there be a comparison? For any common man, both are bridges. The Gandhi Setu looks so grand and was the longest river bridge in the country at the time of its construction. But in barely 30 years, the bridge is in a bad shape. The Koilwar Bridge, the construction of which began 1856, was stalled during the Sepoy Mutiny. The construction was finally completed in 1862. Even today, you will not find a single scratch on the bridge. This proves that nobody had taken care of the Gandhi Setu. Besides, it proves that quality materials were not used for its construction,” said Abhay Kumar Sinha, who teaches in a government school in the state capital.

When contacted, state road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said there was a major problem with the technique that was used to build the Mahatma Gandhi Setu.

“One lane of the bridge was opened in 1982 and the second one in 1987. By 1991, the bridge started having problems and there was an urgent need to repair it. But the Centre sat over it and released some funds in 2000. If a bridge starts having problems barely 10 years since its construction, it proves that there was a serious technical problem. The state had sent many proposals to the Centre regarding the repair of the bridge. But the Union government rejected all the proposals. The Centre then appointed its own consultant, which submitted a report stating that Rs 120 crore would be needed for the repair of the bridge. The irony is that the Centre did not approve the amount. We (the state government) are a nodal agency. The bridge is in a bad shape because of the apathetic attitude of the Centre and the technology that was used for its construction,” he said.