Bridge across forever runs out of time

Explaining how the juggernaut of development crashed over its ageing pylons, Vasant Karanje (68), a retired school teacher, says: “Except for the odd state transport bus, the bridge was only used predominantly by bullock carts and small four-wheelers till 1972. Then, a paper mill came up at Roha and trucks began plying on the bridge with no regard for safe speed limits.”

Locals say the biggest blow fell when Indian Petrochemicals Ltd (IPCL) set up a factory in Nagotahne in 1987 and the area witnessed a construction boom. Consequently, trucks laden with building material began to speed along the bridge, further weakening its supports. “Since they were paid per trip, the emphasis was on making maximum trips and the old bridge saved time,” explains Dinkar Prabhu, whose trucks also plied on the same route. Today, the same juggernaut of development has gifted Prabhu a pucca house, unlike the kuccha one in which his family used to reside.

Curling around the structure’s weakened foundations is a story of a royal marriage that saw the gallant bridge rise to the occasion. Maharaja Allauddin had married his younger sister Arefa to one of his loyal satraps, who was given control over the area around Nagothane. However, since the Amba river, which was then perennially in spate, separated the two families, Allaudin built the bridge for a princely sum of Rs 3 lakh. Solid rock blocks were cobbled together with the ancient masonry mix of lime, jaggery, eggs and sand.

Pitching in its mite, the Gram Panchayat has been writing to the district administration since the early 80s to preserve the bridge but to no avail. Says Nagothane Tehsildar R R Chauhan: “For them it is like a slice of local history. When foreign tourists doing the Mumbai-Goa route come to Nagothane, the villagers unfailingly tell them about the bridge.”

Raigad District Collector Shyamsunder Shinde says he has already communicated the dire need for repairs to the ASI but “little has happened except that an ASI team visited the site on December 15”. Says Chauhan: “Preservation of the bridge is under the ASI’s jurisdiction but in the mean time, the local police have been asked to see that heavy vehicles do not ply on the structure.”

Deputy Superintendent Archaeologist (Aurangabad Circle), ASI, M Maadevayya, told Newsline that the bridge is not “serious cause for concern”. “Of course, the traffic will have to be curtailed since this will have an adverse impact on the beams,” he admits. For all practical purposes, it seems the only reminder that time is running out are chips of stone that periodically drop into the silent waters below. Alas, there is no returning echo.