Behold a tree growing on a hanging bridge!

Behold a tree growing on a hanging bridge!

The cable-stayed bridge at K R Puram, once seen as an engineering marvel, has become a joke, thanks to all-but-absent maintenance. Can you believe it has peepal saplings growing on it?

By Suchith Kidiyoor
Posted On Thursday, September 11, 2008

A tree on a suspension bridge? Go on, laugh. Well, if you really want a big laugh, then get on to the cable-stayed bridge at K R Puram to see the unbelievable: Peepal trees growing on concrete!

Call it heights of official apathy, the bridge is now on the road to dilapidation. Don’t be shocked when some zealots decide to build a temple around this “religious” peepal tree atop a highway connecting states!

When inaugurated in 2003, the bridge (also known as suspension bridge and hanging bridge) was the toast of Bangalore, a civic and engineering marvel. Connecting Bangalore to both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the suspension bridge made travel to both these states easier and faster. A few thousand commuters sighed in relief. But that was then.

Today, the very bridge stands reflecting an array of potholes, trees (yes!) peepal and lichen on either side of the road, the road itself suspended like some joyride run amok, to say nothing of the condition of your car after a ride. The country’s first cable-stayed bridge is crumbling and nobody seems to care except the users, the commuters.

After an arduous traffic-jammed drive on NH-7, you get on the bridge hoping for the end of the traffic nightmare. It only starts in a bigger manner on the skyway, starting from the left lane of the Indian Tin Factory bus-stand. Says Naveen Achari, a regular commuter: “The bridge is in a very bad shape. All these days, we were negotiating pot holes. Now, we are getting to negotiate craters.”

But what has compounded the woes of motorists is the surge in traffic in recent times. The entry and exit points of the roads connected by the bridge have turned out to be accident zones as motorists run the risk of knocking down pedestrians, as there are neither signals nor traffic personnel operating here.

Making matters worse, the recent rain has battered down the road leading to the bridge as well as large sections of the bridge itself. Yet another commuter points out that if the bridge and the road are not asphalted immediately, people would end up spending more than two-three hours on the bridge itself. “The smoke, dust, trucks, cracked up roads, make the life of the commuter miserable. Why isn’t anybody waking up to the plight of this national highway which connects thousands of travellers to Tirupati and Chennai?’’

Passers-by look at the peepal saplings growing on either sides of the bridge in amused disbelief. An official of National Highways explains, “Approaching portion of the bridge has shrunk due to the heavy depression on the land of the area and it has been rectified. Yes there are numerous pot holes and we are unable to start asphalting work because of the rain. A Rs 3 crore proposal will be sent by the department to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways within a few days. If the ministry clears the proposal, work will start in a month.’’

EXPERT-SPEAK

Experts blame it on lack of maintenance. “Bridges are not constructed quite often. Any bridge should last longer, at least 100 years. That can be achieved by taking up maintenance activities. If water is allowed to stagnate on the bridge, it will cause dampness and corrosion,” said M S Sudarshan, an expert on concrete structures and managing director of Civilaid Technoclinic Private Limited.

The place where the cables are anchored is a sensitive zone and and regular maintenance is a must. On the growth of peepal trees, Sudarshan explained: “Peepal seeds are normally dropped by birds during their flight. Peepal plants thrive on lime, which is present in abundance in concrete. But this kind of growth has to be checked as loss of lime in concrete will reduce alkalinity, which in turn reduces the durability of the bridge as cracks appear in the concrete.” He attributed the bumpy ride that the motorists experience on the road to improper compaction of soil.