Official Name: Rabindra Setu
Design: Suspension type Balanced Cantilever and truss arch
Total Length: 705 m (2,313.0 ft)
Width: 71 ft (21.6 m) with two footpaths of 15 ft (4.6 m) on either side
Height: 82 m (269.0 ft)
Longest Span: 1,500 ft (457.2 m)
Construction Begin & End: 1936 - 1942
Opened:3rd Feb, 1943
Daily Traffic: 100,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians
(click on thumbnail picture to see larger view)
The Howrah Bridge / Rabindra Setu is a cantilever bridge with a suspended
span over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the
bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a
pontoon bridge at the same location linking the two cities of Howrah and
Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu, after the
great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian
Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
The bridge on the Hooghly River is a famous symbol of Kolkata and West
Bengal. It weathers the storms of the Bay of Bengal region, carrying a daily
traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000
pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world.
The third-longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, the
Howrah Bridge is the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world.
In the view of the increasing traffic across the Hooghly river, a committee
was appointed in 1855-56 to review alternatives for constructing a bridge
across it. The plan was shelved in 1859-60, to be revived in 1868, when it
was decided that a bridge should be constructed and a newly appointed trust
vested to manage it. The Calcutta Port Trust was founded in 1870, and the
Legislative department of the then Government of Bengal passed the Howrah
Bridge Act in the year 1871 under the Bengal Act IX of 1871, empowering the
Lieutenant-Governor to have the bridge constructed with Government capital
under the aegis of the Port Commissioners.
Eventually a contract was signed with Sir Bradford Leslie to construct a
pontoon bridge. Way back in 1860 it was felt that Howrah and Calcutta must
be linked by a bridge. So a pontoon bridge was ordered from England and was
assembled in Calcutta by the Port Trust. The bridge was considerably damaged
by the great cyclone on 20 March 1874. A steamer named Egeria broke from her
moorings and collided head-on with the bridge, sinking three pontoons and
damaging nearly 200 feet of the bridge. The bridge was completed in 1874, at
a total cost of 2.2 million, and opened to traffic on 17 October of that
year. The bridge was then 1528 ft. long and 62 ft. wide, with 7-foot wide
pavements on either side. Initially the bridge was periodically unfastened
to allow steamers and other marine vehicles to pass through. Before 1906,
the bridge used to be undone for the passage of vessels during daytime only.
Since June of that year it started opening at night for all vessels except
ocean steamers, which were required to pass through during daytime. From 19
August 1879, the bridge was illuminated by electric lamp-posts, powered by
the dynamo at the Mullick Ghat Pumping Station. As the bridge could not
handle the rapidly increasing load, the Port Commissioners started planning
in 1905 for a new improved bridge.
The Chief Engineer of the Port Trust, Mr.
J. McGlashan, wanted to replace the pontoon bridge, with a permanent
structure, as the present bridge interfered with North/South river traffic.
Work could not be started as World War I (1914-1918) broke out. Then in 1926
a commission under the Chairmanship of Sir R. N. Mukherjee recommended a
suspension bridge of a particular type to be built across the River Hoogly.
The bridge was designed by one Mr.Walton of M/s Rendel, Palmer & Triton. The
order for construction and erection was placed on M/s.Cleveland Bridge &
Engineering Company in 1939. Again World War II (1939-1945 ) intervened. All
the steel that was to come from England were diverted for war effort in
Europe. Out of 26,000 tons of steel, that was required for the bridge, only
3000 tons were supplied from England. In spite of the Japanese threat the
then ( British ) Government of India pressed on with the construction. Tata
Steel were asked to supply the remaining 23,000 tons of high tension steel.
The Tatas developed the quality of steel required for the bridge and called
it Tiscom. The entire 23,000 tons was supplied in time. The fabrication and
erection work was awarded to a local engineering firm of Howrah. It was the
famous Braithwaite Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited (BBJ).
Because of the war there was no opening ceremony and it was opened to the
public in 1943. It is a unique bridge - one of its kind in the world at that
time. The bridge was official classified as " Suspension Type Balanced
Cantilever ". When it was commissioned it was the third longest cantilever
bridge. The bridge does not have any nuts and bolts. It is of riveted
construction. The bridge deck hangs from 39 pairs of hangers suspended from
the main trusses.
With the completion of this bridge, India came of age in bridge construction
and bridge building. But the actual tribute should go to the workers of The
Tata Steel and Braithwaite Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited (BBJ). In spite of Japanese air attacks ( the last Japanese air attack took
place on 5th.December 1941 ) the work was competed in time.
It took only four years to complete the bridge and that too during war years
when both men and materials were in short supply. Work went on round the
clock in spite of strict black out in the city and there were no major
accident during the construction.
The main tower was constructed with single monolith caissons of dimensions
55.31 x 24.8 m with 21 shafts, each 6.25 metre square. The fabrication was
done by The Braithwaite Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited at four
different shops in Kolkata. The two anchorage caissons were each 16.4 m
by 8.2 m, with two wells 4.9 m square. The caissons were so designed that
the working chambers within the shafts could be temporarily enclosed by
steel diaphragms to allow work under compressed air if required. The caisson
at Kolkata side was set at 31.41 m and that at Howrah side at 26.53 m below
One night, during the process of grabbing out the muck to enable the caisson
to move, the ground below it yielded, and the entire mass plunged two feet,
shaking the ground. The impact of this was so intense that the seismograph
at Kidderpore registered it as an earthquake and a Hindu temple on the shore
was destroyed, although it was subsequently rebuilt. While muck was being
cleared, numerous varieties of objects were brought up, including anchors,
grappling irons, cannons, cannonballs, brass vessels, and coins dating back
to the East India Company.
The job of sinking the caissons was carried out round-the-clock at a rate of
a foot or more per day. The caissons were sunk through soft river deposits
to a stiff yellow clay 26.5 m below ground level. The accuracy of sinking
the huge caissons was exceptionally precise, within 50-75 mm of the true
position. After penetrating 2.1 m into clay, all shafts were plugged with
concrete after individual dewatering, with some 5 m of backfilling in
adjacent shafts. The main piers on the Howrah side were sunk by open wheel
dredging, while those on the Kolkata side required compressed air to counter
running sand. The air pressure maintained was about 40 lbs per square inch
(2.8 bar), which required about 500 workers to be employed. Whenever
excessively soft soil was encountered, the shafts symmetrical to the caisson
axes were left unexcavated to allow strict control. In very stiff clays, a
large number of the internal wells were completely undercut, allowing the
whole weight of the caisson to be carried by the outside skin friction and
the bearing under the external wall. Skin friction on the outside of the
monolith walls was estimated at 29 kN/m2 while loads on the cutting edge in
clay overlying the founding stratum reached 100 tonnes/m. The work on the
foundation was completed on November 1938.
By the end of 1940, the erection of the cantilevered arms was commenced and
was completed in mid-summer of 1941. The two halves of the suspended span,
each 282 feet (86 m) long and weighing 2,000 tons, were built in December
1941. The bridge was erected by commencing at the two anchor spans and
advancing towards the center, with the use of creeper cranes moving along
the upper chord. 16 hydraulic jacks, each of which had an 800-ton capacity,
were pressed into service to join the two halves of the suspended span.
The entire project cost 25 million (£2,463,887). The project was a pioneer
in bridge construction, particularly in India, but the government did not
have a formal opening of the bridge due to fears of attacks by Japanese
planes fighting the Allied Powers. Japan had attacked the United States at
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The first vehicle to use the bridge was a
On 24 June 2005, a private cargo vessel M V Mani, belonging to the Ganges
Water Transport Pvt. Ltd, while trying to pass under the bridge during high
tide, had its funnel stuck underneath for three hours, causing substantial
damage worth about 15 million to the stringer and longitudinal girder of the
bridge. Some of the 40 cross-girders were also broken. Two of four trolley
guides, bolted and welded with the girders, were extensively damaged. Nearly
350 metres (1,150 ft) of 700 metres (2,300 ft) of the track were twisted
beyond repair. The damage was so severe that KoPT requested help from
Rendall-Palmer & Tritton Limited, the original consultant on the bridge from
UK. KoPT also contacted SAIL to provide 'matching steel' used during its
construction in 1943, for the repairs. For the repair costing around 5
million (US$83,000), about 8 tonnes of steel was used. The repairs were
completed in early 2006. Again the total repairing process was done by "The
Braithwaite Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited.
View more Major Bridges Constructed by BBJ