The ill-health of Calcutta bridges spells much more than logistical doom

Safe to say that when Mamata Banerjee won the historic Bengal elections of 2011 and promised to turn Calcutta into London, she did not mean to make real olden rhymes of falling bridges, et al. And yet, over the past few years Calcutta has been experiencing an acute bridge crisis. In 2013 one flank of the Ultadanga Flyover collapsed, three years later an under-construction bridge collapsed in the Girish Park area, in 2018 the Majerhat Bridge caved in, and for the last 49 days the Tala Bridge has been in a state of partial shutdown.

The constantly expanding bottle gourd-shaped city of Calcutta stretches approximately 30 kilometres from north to south — as the crow flies — and 10 kilometres from east to west. It has a population of 4.6 million and a total of 20 bridges. This includes metal bridges, concrete bridges, flyovers and railway overbridges.