Teesta Bridge
The Teesta Bridge opened Apr 1901 [1] to complete the metre gauge(MG) ‘Eastern Bengal Railway’ line from the ‘Sara Train Ferry’ northwards.
History
The ‘Northern Bengal State Railway’(NBSR) between 1877 and 1879 opened their MG Mainline between Siliguri and the Train Ferry, this completed the northern link. The NBSR opened in Feb 1882 the branch line eastward from Parvatipur via Rangpur to Kaunia
At Kaunia, on the west bank of the Teesta River, there was a ferry crossing to connect to the 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) ‘Kaunia-Dharlia State Tram/Railway’. This remained in operation until the opening of the ‘Teestra Bridge’ in 1901
The ‘Kaunia-Dharlia State Tram/Railway’ was taken over by ‘East Bengal Railway’(EBR) in 1887 and in 1901 the 17 mile(27km) section from Kaunia to Teesta converted to metre gauge(MG) , this included the ‘Teesta Bridge’, becoming part of the ‘EBR Mainline MG’ network [2].
The Teesta to Kurigram Section, a length of 15 miles(24km) remained a 2ft 6in/762mm NG line at this time and named the ‘Teesta-Kurigram Railway’[3].
Construction
This is fully described by William Robert Shaw in his presentation to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1902 [4][5] summarised as:-
13 spans of 150 foot (45.7mtr) with extensive ground works and training bunds. This required 14 wells and piers supporting the steel girders each weighing 159 tons and lplaced into position in pieces.
References
- ↑ “Administration Report on Railways 1918” page 47 (pdf56); Retrieved 29 Nov 2020
- ↑ “Administration Report on Railways 1918” pages 47 (pdf56); Retrieved 30 Nov 2020
- ↑ “Administration Report on Railways 1918” pages 49 (pdf57); Retrieved 30 Nov 2020
- ↑ Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 150 Issue 1902, pp. 361-375. ‘The Teesta Bridge’ by W R Shaw); Retrieved 30 Nov 2020
- ↑ Zenodo.org Full article download); Retrieved 30 Nov 2020