Dufferin Bridge
The Dufferin Bridge over the River Ganges at Benares was constructed by the engineers of Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway(O&RR). The bridge was inaugurated by the Viceroy, the Earl of Dufferin, on 16 December 1887 [1].
The bridge carried the ‘O&RR Mainline’ from Moghal Sarai over the Ganges to Benares and onward.
Bridge Construction
Construction of the bridge was sanctioned by the Secretary of State for India in July 1879. The design was discussed and arranged by Henry Burdett Hederstedt [2], the O&RR Chief Engineer and Consulting Engineers in England.
The bridge has 7 spans of 350 ft and 9 spans of 110 ft and it was the first bridge of its type. The engineer in charge of construction of the Dufferin Bridge was Frederick Thomas Granville Walton, who went on to become the Engineer in Chief of the O&RR [3].
Later Developments
The O&RR was merged into the ‘East Indian Railway’ in 1925 and the ‘Dufferin Bridge’ became part of the ‘EIR Northern Main Line’
The bridge was renamed as the Malviya Bridge in 1948 after Madan Mohan Malaviya. As the bridge is near Rajghat, it is also locally known as Rajghat bridge [3].
References
- ↑ Institution of Civil Engineers, "The Construction of the Dufferin Bridge over the Ganges at Benares" by Frederich Thomas Granville Walton Retrieved on 21 Jul 2016
- ↑ Institution of Civil Engineers "Obituary Henry Burdett Hederstedt" Retrieved on 21 Jul 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wikipedia “Malviya Bridge” Retrieved on 21 Jul 2016
