Godavari Bridge

16°59′52″N 81°45′21″E / 16.99778°N 81.75583°E / 16.99778; 81.75583CarriesTwo lanes of Road and Single Railway line.CrossesGodavari RiverLocaleRajahmundryOther name(s)Rajahmundry–Kovvur BridgePreceded byThe Havelock BridgeFollowed byGodavari Arch BridgeCharacteristicsDesignTruss BridgeTotal length4.1 kilometres (2.5 mi)Longest span91.5 metres (300 ft)No. of spans27HistoryEngineering design byBraithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction CompanyOpened16 August 1974; 49 years ago (16 August 1974)Location

The Godavari Bridge or Kovvur–Rajahmundry Bridge is a truss bridge spanning the Godavari River in Rajahmundry, India. It is India's fourth longest road-cum-rail bridge crossing a water body, the first one being the Bogibeel Bridge, also a rail-cum-road bridge over the Brahmaputra River in the Dibrugarh district of Assam state in north-east India,^[1] and second is Digha–Sonpur Bridge over Ganges in Bihar.

The Godavari bridge is 4.1 kilometers (2.8 km Rail part & 4.1 km Road part) long consisting of 27 spans of 91.5 m and 7 spans of 45.72 m of which 6 spans of 45.72m are in 6 deg. curve at long Rajahmundry end to make up for the built up area. The bridge has a road deck over the single track rail deck, similar to the Grafton Bridge in New South Wales, Australia. This bridge, in addition to Godavari Arch Bridge, has been widely used to represent Rajahmundry in arts, media, and culture. It is one of the recognised symbols of Rajahmundry.^[2]

Geography

The road-cum-rail bridge is built across the Godavari River (largest river in South India at over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) length) as it enters into the deltaic reach before debouching into the sea 60 kilometres (37 mi) downstream of the bridge, the second largest river in India. At the location of the bridge, near Rajahmundry, the river flows with a width of about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi), split in two channels with an island formation in between. The maximum discharge observed in the river is reported to be around 3 million m³/s and the maximum velocity of water flow as 5 metres (16 ft) per second

History

Construction

During the Third Five-Year plan doubling of railway track between Chennai-Howrah was planned. Most of the route had been doubled except the small stretch of track between Kovvur and Rajahmundry where a bridge had to be built to span the three kilometer long Godavari River. During 1964, the construction of second bridge across Godavari river at Rajahmundry was sanctioned as a part of doubling of track between Kovvur and Rajahmundry. But there had been a persistent demand from local population for construction of a road link between Kovvur and Rajahmundry, which would essentially link East Godavari and West Godavari districts. The Andhra Pradesh State Government came forward with the proposal to add a road deck over the rail bridge under construction as a part of doubling the railway track between Chennai-Howrah.^[3]

It was commissioned by South Central Railway division of Indian Railways. Construction of the bridge began in the early 1970s by Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company, a group company of Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Limited.^[4] When completed it was Asia's longest rail -cum- road bridge.

It was inaugurated by the then President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in 1974.

Sister bridges

Old Godavari bridge

The Old Godavari Bridge or Havelock Bridge was built in 1900 by Mr.F.T.G.Walton, now decommissioned, this bridge has 56 spans and is 2754 m long. It was constructed with stone masonry and steel girders and certainly a marvel of British engineering. The New Godavari Bridge was made as a substitute for it.

Godavari arch bridge

Godavari Arch Bridge is the third bridge constructed near Rajahmundry. Constructed by the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), this bridge is a modern-day engineering feat. The bridge is made of bow string girder arches. The bridge is fit for 350 km/h rail services. It was commissioned for passenger traffic in March 1997 and became fully operational for running trains by the Indian Railways from 2003.

Fourth Godavari bridge

New Kovvur–Rajahmundry 4th Bridge was opened to traffic in 2015.^[5]

Panorama

See also

• List of road-rail bridges
• List of longest bridges in the world
• List of longest bridges above water in India

Gallery

• 
  Sunset View at Cotton Barrage in Rajamahendravaram City.
• 
  Sunset at the Bridge
• 
  Sunset at the Bridge
• 
  Starting of the bridge. Notice the elevated road going over the bridge to join it.
• 
  Stretch of Godavari Bridge. This is only the half of the bridge

References

Rivers

Major tributaries	Godavari Pranhita Indravati Sabari Manjira Manair Wardha Wainganga Penganga
Minor tributaries	Pravara Kinnerasani Purna Sileru Sindphana Taliperu
Sub-tributaries	Adan Banganga Bindusara Darna Kadva Kanhan Kolar Nasardi Pench Purna Shivana

Dams, barragesGeographical
features / regionsRiparian districts

Maharashtra	Nashik Ahmednagar Aurangabad Parbhani Nanded Gadchiroli Beed Amravati Bhandara Gondia Chandrapur Wardha Nagpur Yavatmal Washim Buldhana Hingoli
Madhya Pradesh	Balaghat Seoni Betul Chhindwara
Odisha	Kalahandi Koraput Malkangiri
Chhattisgarh	Bastar Bijapur
Karnataka	Bidar
Telangana	Medak Sangareddy Siddipet Nizamabad Kamareddy Adilabad Nirmal Mancherial Komaram Bheem Karimnagar Jagtial Peddapalli Rajanna Sircilla Hanamkonda Warangal Jayashankar Bhupalpally Jangaon Mahabubabad Bhadradri Kothagudem Khammam
Andhra Pradesh	Alluri Sitharama Raju Eluru West Godavari East Godavari Kakinada Konaseema

CitiesLanguages / peopleCoalfieldsOil / gas fieldsIndustriesTransport

Highways and railways	NH 16 (old NH 5) old NH 6 NH 44 (old NH 7) Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railways Visakhapatnam–Vijayawada section Bilaspur–Nagpur section Nagpur–Hyderabad line
Bridges on Godavari	Godavari Bridge Old Godavari Bridge Godavari Arch Bridge Godavari Fourth Bridge

Pollution concerns,
river basin's sustainable
productivity & ecologyRelated topicsOther basins