A policeman keeps vigil on the Saraighat bridge on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

June 7: Much water has passed under the Saraighat bridge — the first rail-cum-road bridge constructed over the Brahmaputra — but it still stands strong.

Saraighat, which was the first bridge to connect Guwahati with the rest of the region, entered its 50th year today. The country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had inaugurated the bridge on June 7, 1963, at a grand function at Maligaon railway station.

The NF Railway that looks after the maintenance of Saraighat bridge, said even after all these years, the structure of the bridge is absolutely fit and strong.

Public relations officer of NF Railway Nripendra Bhattacharyya told The Telegraph that the railway had carried out an inspection to ascertain the present status of the structures of the bridge in April this year. Experts of IIT Guwahati carried out the tests and found that the structures of the bridge were completely intact, he added.

“Structurally, all 11 pillars on which the bridge is standing were found to be okay and there were no cracks on the pillars as reported by a section of media. Besides a huge number of vehicular and passenger traffic on the road bridge, 85 goods and passenger (trains) pass over the bridge every day. Experts say the bridge is fit enough to continue its services in the years to come,” Bhattacharyya said.

Available information suggests the name Saraighat was derived from a place near Guwahati on the north bank of the Brahmaputra with the same name. Sarai was a village famous for the Battle of Saraighat, which was fought here between the Mughal empire and the Ahom kingdom led by the famous Lachit Barphukan, in 1671.

Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurates the Saraighat bridge. File picture

Bhattacharyya said plans to construct the bridge were initiated in 1910 and construction finally began on January 1, 1959, after the 1958 rail budget allocated funds for the project.

Hindustan Construction Company completed construction of the bridge in September 1962 after using 40,000 tonnes of cement, 20,000 tonnes of steel and 8,000 labourers, he said.

The 1492metre long bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 10.65 crore. A diesel engine was run on the rail bridge on September 23 in 1962 and the goods train service started on October 31 in 1962, Bhattacharyya said.

Bhattacharyya said the people of Assam were emotionally attached with the inauguration of Saraighat bridge and many of them are nostalgic about it.

“The NF Railway is planning to celebrate the 50th year of existence of the bridge in a befitting manner,” he said.

A road bridge is being constructed over the Brahmaputra just next to the Saraighat bridge.

After Saraighat bridge, the Brahmaputra saw two bridges over it namely Kaliabhomora bridge near Tezpur in Sonitpur district and Naranarayana Setu connecting Jogighopa with Goalpara district.

The Bogibeel bridge, which will be the longest rail-cum-road bridge of the country with a total length of 4.94km, is currently under construction over the Brahmaputra in Dibrugarh district.