Don’t demolish, we’ll repair S-Bridge, say engineer’s kin
Great-grandson of original engineer proposes to strengthen Byculla bridge; the railways, however, is noncommittal.
In an appeal tinged with nostalgia appeal, descendants of the Tejukaya Company that constructed the S-shaped heritage bridge at Byculla have expressed willingness to strengthen the bridge. Central Railway Mumbai has put it on the list of bridges to be rebuilt.
Railway officials said all road overbridges in Mumbai were recently inspected and it has been noticed that 14 overbridges need to be repaired and nine need to be rebuilt. Of the nine that are to be rebuilt, the dismantling of two bridges - Hancock and Carnac - are already proposed and the work will begin in October.
Railway officials refused to speak on record as they said they cannot commit to taking any one company’s help. “Project work is given out on tenders and a due process followed for all construction projects,” a senior construction department official said. “If the company wins the contract, it is given work. Being a central government body, the process is transparent and clear.”
Descendants of the family that built the Byculla bridge said that S Bridge or Garden’s Bridge was an early 20th century engineering marvel and given the technological advancement today, there are many ways to retain and strengthen the original structure.
“It is a one its kind bridge in the city,” said Pranav Tejukaya, managing director and CEO, Tejukaya Group of Companies. “It was built in 1913 by our great-grandfather Seth Teju Kaya, a registered railway contractor, when no other engineer was willing to take up the challenge. The bridge had to be built in a creative manner, and not like a conventional bridge.”
Officially called Gardens Bridge, the stone masonry bridge connects the area west of Byculla station with the east. The bridge has peculiar sharp bends at both ends because when the company began construction, they found that there was very little space on either side of the bridge. That is the reason the bridge gets these curves, giving it an S shape.
The original carved inscriptions on the bridge state that it was opened in 1913 by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), now called Central Railway, and built by “Tejoo Kaya and Company”.
“When he was asked to build the bridge, Seth Teju Kaya first visited the site and sat there for hours thinking about a solution,” Pranav Tejukaya said. “Then he came back to office and made various bridge designs and layouts by aligning matchboxes, and finally came up with this idea of S bridge. The idea was that bullock carts and horse buggies should be able to easily climb the bridge.”
In an appeal tinged with nostalgia appeal, descendants of the Tejukaya Company that constructed the S-shaped heritage bridge at Byculla have expressed willingness to strengthen the bridge. Central Railway Mumbai has put it on the list of bridges to be rebuilt.
Railway officials said all road overbridges in Mumbai were recently inspected and it has been noticed that 14 overbridges need to be repaired and nine need to be rebuilt. Of the nine that are to be rebuilt, the dismantling of two bridges - Hancock and Carnac - are already proposed and the work will begin in October.
“Like these two, the remaining seven bridges have also outlived their life and are required to be rebuilt. The estimated cost of rebuilding of these bridges is Rs 172.49 crore,” said a railway official. “We have asked the BMC to get sanction to demolish the existing bridges and rebuild them one by one. In this context, the issue has been referred to the BMC’s chief engineer, bridges.”
Railway officials refused to speak on record as they said they cannot commit to taking any one company’s help. “Project work is given out on tenders and a due process followed for all construction projects,” a senior construction department official said. “If the company wins the contract, it is given work. Being a central government body, the process is transparent and clear.”
Descendants of the family that built the Byculla bridge said that S Bridge or Garden’s Bridge was an early 20th century engineering marvel and given the technological advancement today, there are many ways to retain and strengthen the original structure.
“It is a one its kind bridge in the city,” said Pranav Tejukaya, managing director and CEO, Tejukaya Group of Companies. “It was built in 1913 by our great-grandfather Seth Teju Kaya, a registered railway contractor, when no other engineer was willing to take up the challenge. The bridge had to be built in a creative manner, and not like a conventional bridge.”
Officially called Gardens Bridge, the stone masonry bridge connects the area west of Byculla station with the east. The bridge has peculiar sharp bends at both ends because when the company began construction, they found that there was very little space on either side of the bridge. That is the reason the bridge gets these curves, giving it an S shape.
The original carved inscriptions on the bridge state that it was opened in 1913 by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), now called Central Railway, and built by “Tejoo Kaya and Company”.
“When he was asked to build the bridge, Seth Teju Kaya first visited the site and sat there for hours thinking about a solution,” Pranav Tejukaya said. “Then he came back to office and made various bridge designs and layouts by aligning matchboxes, and finally came up with this idea of S bridge. The idea was that bullock carts and horse buggies should be able to easily climb the bridge.”
