Chalthi Bridge: Re-Engineering Connectivity Of Kumaon Hills
Post by
Col Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Walls turned sideways are bridges’—Angela Davis
The northern frontiers of our sub-continent for ages have been buffeted from the central Asian land mass by a maze of mountains. Chiefly among them the Himalayas, which has been ingrained into the psyche of general masses of this country as a care giver, protector from the northern dangers and a repository of various religious abodes, of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists alike. In the maze of these mountains lie buried innumerable tales of mythology, valour, culture, religion, people and their struggles for daily life. The formative years of my service saw me serving in these remote corners of our northern frontiers which was an education in itself for each place brought within its fold plenty of people, experiences ,places, climatic wonders and the ilk. It goes without saying that the armed forces of the country build an inherent connection of such places with their personnel who later on act as an ambassador of sorts when they happen to go carrying with them a little bit of each exposure. One such exposure I had early on in my service was by way of getting posted to ‘Pithoragarh’ also known as the ‘mini Kashmir’ of Utrakhand in the early 90s ,which till date I treasure with lots of fond memories.
I happen to rekindle my interest in bygone days when in 2019 I happen to visit both Kumaon & Garhwal region with places like Pithoragarh, Patal Bhuvneshwar, Joshimath ,Badrinath etc thrown in my travel itinerary. My ingress into this zone was from the terai region heading to Garhwal taking NH-109 via Kaladungi-Nainital-Ranikhet-Dwarahat-Chaukhutia eventually heading to Badrinath. I egressed out of Garhwal region on to Kumaon taking a multitude of highways from NH-309 to NH-9 which converge both at a place called as ‘Thal’. From ‘Thal’ it is all the way NH9 which acts as a life line of Kumaon region from the plains of terai region of ‘Tanakpur ’and ‘Banbasa’. On NH 9 stands testimony to one of the engineering marvels of our country built in 1955 that acts as a concrete model of our commitment to connect to the frontier areas and its people—welcome to the ‘Chalthi bridge’. A’ Bow arch bridge’ built 68 years ago, this was one of the first ever bridges built in independent India after independence in the high Himalayas of UP (Utrakhand was part of UP then) . Shaping up like a bow arch, the entire load of the bridge over R Chalthi is taken by this concrete arch. Based on RCC structure this arch bridge is 110 meters in length and 10 feet wide.Due to its less width and narrow clearance from the edges only one vehicle at a time passes over it. As if this was not enough this bridge in the last 68 years has not been repaired even once with painting etc done over its entire super structure twice in its entire life span so far.
Be that as it may, this engineering marvel was designed by an assistant engineer Mr PN Mishra of PWD department belonging to ‘Lohaghat’ section which used to form part of ‘Bareilly division during those days. As on today even the heavy engineering equipment and vehicles of ‘Dhauli Ganga’ hydel project pass over this 68 years old bridge without their drivers flinching even for a second while crossing over R Chalthiday and night. Chalthibridge has been witness to major deluges and earthquakes in the past as also flash floods generated from the nearby mountainous rivulets but to no avail. Having passed over this bridge numerous times while posted at Pithoragarh from 1991 t0 1993 I again happen to wheel over this bridge in 2019 after a gap of about 28 years only to find it standing erect and proud with its concrete bow arch extending into the blue skies of Chalthi as if time and tide of events hadn’t touched it even by a whisker.
The government of the day is now in fact seized of the matter that though the arch bridge is still performing its task dutifully it may not be able to take on the added traffic rush from and to the plains /hills and has been able to complete 80% of the construction of a new bridge adjacent to the old Chalthi bridge though the new bridge too has been subjected to the vagaries of the weather all the same. The new bridge is 120 meters in length and 14.90 meters in its width. Due to the urgency shown by the Modi government in completing the famous ‘Char Dham’ yatra route which has an equal if not more stress on this ‘Tanakpur –Pithoragarh highway to cater to the tourist influx from the terai region of Uttrakhand the new bridge assumes all the more importance to see the light of the day. Good roads and bridges are the life lines of any area to give a heft to the area’s general development which this new bridge on R Chalthi will be able to ably perform. The area around Chalthi is surrounded by high mountains like walls seeming to narrow it down to a non-entity, but then as ‘Angela Davis’ the famous American writer cum political activist says—‘Walls turned sideways are bridges’, I am sure these twin engineering marvels will prove her correct by their yeoman’s service to the frontier people of Kumaon region for times to come.
(The writer is a regular scribe and can be approached on his email…slalotra@gmail.com)
