City Bridge Renamed With Technical Overhaul: Jai Hind Bridge
The residents of Kolkata and others can now avail the long-awaited Majherhat Bridge after it's inauguration by the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, on 3rd December, 2020 - Thursday evening as she stated,
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had raised a slogan 'Jai Hind' and also formed our Indian National Army. Therefore, on his upcoming 125th Birth Anniversary we shall pay tribute to him by renaming the Bridge as 'Jai Hind Bridge'.
The major bridge over the Majherhat Railway Line which connects Behala with South Kolkata had collapsed on September 04, 2018 leading to the death of three people and let 25 others injured. Thereafter, its reconstruction was started by the State Public Works Department (PWD). The Chief Minister also stated that the bridge which costed around ₹311 crore would have been inaugurated nine months ago if Railways had given clearance. Eventually, in around two years and after getting final permission from the Railway Department, the Jai Hind Bridge has been made functional on a full-fledged manner.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Cable-Stayed Bridge
The old technology has now been replaced by cable-stayed bridge as the previous Two-Lane Bridge is now Four-Lane with double its load capacity. It has just been two decades that the cable stayed technology attained its sophistication capable of taking over extreme weather conditions and loads. Such requires less installation of pillars with extended long span structures and lightweight aerodynamic stability. Complying with the high level corrosion protected cables stabilizing a 100 year life, a research states,
Vertical or inclined cables which are placed in bridges as a hanger system affect the dynamic performance of bridges. Inclined hangers can be used instead of vertical hangers to improve the stability of the bridge aerodynamically.
The late 16th century technology, cable-stayed bridge, uses numerous diagonal cables of high tensile steel running towards vertical towers which shifts the force of the cables towards the foundation of the Bridge through vertical compression without putting direct tension on surface or deck of the Bridge.
Real-Time Sensors
The Bridge in the meantime is supposed to be equipped with real-time sensors to monitor its load and other technicalities. Such sensors facilitates efficient monitoring of even the slightest structural change, those data of which would be transmitted from different points to the control centre. Data collected would thereby be stored after detailed analysis in prefecting the regular structural integrity report. As per an official involved in such construction,
The sensors will capture data on the physical parameters, such as strain, displacement, tilt and vibration on the structural member, caused by moving or standing vehicles, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and other seismic effect and transmit them to servers in a control room.
The Chief Minister stated that with collapse of this major bridge, they have set up audit committees who are dealing with proper monitoring and audit of flyovers and bridges in the State. The committee have done many surveys and are working on it vigilantly so that such things are checked beforehand. In the days to come, common people hope to regain their confidence and feel much safer as Government takes timely actions together with support from various other departments.
With this, the Majherhat bridge renamed as the Jai Hind Bridge has become the Bengal's second instrumented rail overbridge (ROB) after the one at Burdwan Station.