Godavari Bridge

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Godavari Bridge
The Godavari Bridge across Godavari River
Coordinates	16°59′52″N 81°45′21″E / 16.99778°N 81.75583°E / 16.99778; 81.75583
Carries	Two lanes of Road and Single Railway line.
Crosses	Godavari River
Locale	Rajahmundry
Other name(s)	Rajahmundry–Kovvur Bridge
Preceded by	The Havelock Bridge
Followed by	Godavari Arch Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Truss Bridge
Total length	4.1 kilometres (2.5 mi)
Longest span	91.5 metres (300 ft)
No. of spans	27
History
Engineering design by	Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company
Opened	16 August 1974; 50 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 over the Brahmaputra in Assam,^[1] and second is Digha–Sonpur Bridge over the Ganga 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]

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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

• 
  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

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