Kistna Bridge, Bezwada(ECR)
Kistna Bridge, Bezweda(ECR)
To avoid confusion Fibis have adopted the following titles:-
- ‘Kistna Bridge, Bezweda(ECR)’ the subject of this page
- ‘Kistna Viaduct, Raichur’(GIPR)
The Kistna Bridge crossing the +Kistna River+ at +Bezwada+ opened in the early 1890’s. [1]
Spelling Note +Note+
- Bezwada is the older name for Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh, India
- River Kistna is now known as the Kristna River
The Bridge
The bridge over the River Kistna formed part of the broad gauge(BG) ‘East Coast State Railway’ and connected that line to ‘Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway’ system north of the River Kistna. It also provided an interchange with the metre gauge(MG) ‘Bellary-Kistna State Railway’ south of the river.
The bridge was designed by Sir Alexander Rendel and F J E Spring as Engineer-in-Chief, and Ernest Ifill Shadbolt as Executive Engineer on construction. . The truss spans are built of plate girders and were fabricated in Britain, half by P & W MacLellan and half by Head Wrightson Co. [2]
Later History
In 1901 the southern section of the ‘East Coast State Railway’ - which included the ‘Kistna Bridge’ - was transferred to the ‘Madras Railway’(MR) in 1901; subsequently renamed ‘Madras (North-East) Railway’; becoming the Madras-Waltair NE Mainline of the ‘Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway’(M&SMR) in 1908.