A BRIDGE NO MORE

Photograph by: Tony Fernandes

A BRIDGE NO MORE

View from the Causeway

Ponte de Linhares

Entering Panjim from Ribandar and Goa Velha

Photo by Tony Fernandes, May 1972

converted from Kodachrome Transparency

As one can see in the picture this bridge had many supporting spans,but unfortunately it was one that had a very short life span.

A Bridge No More

“Ajeeb hai he Goa ke bridge”. Equally more “ajeeb hai contract award karnewale aur bridge bannewale”.

          The foundation stone of the first bridge over the River Mandovi was laid by the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. This bridge, called Nehru Bridge was completed in 1970. The waters of the Mandovi were lucky but just for a few years to pass underneath it. This bridge collapsed in 1986. The concrete spans did not mysteriously take a dive in the Mandovi; in fact it was primarily due to a faulty design and lack of maintenance work.

          Having taken 9 nine years to complete and another equal number of years till the pile-drivers found bedrock to give the bridge a footing, the teenage generation of that period that I belonged to patiently watched the seemingly slow process of its construction, seeing the bridge pylons from a distance while crossing the Mandovi river on the ferry between Betim and Panjim. It was not completed till I was in my early twenties when I had started working in Bombay and then in the Arabian Gulf.

          While I watched this bridge being built, it always gave me the impression that everything that went around the construction area seemed to be at a stand-still. I waited in vain for many years. On every vacation to Goa I said to myself: “You know, Tony, you are going to take the taxi straight home over that bridge the next time you come down to Goa”. The next time did come though, but not soon enough. It came many years later after an endless waiting period. And before I was in my forties, that ‘ajeeb’ bridge collapsed. And for many years again, we had no bridge. And the scenery around that area was not looking good either.

          Indeed ‘Ajeeb hai Goa ke bridge’ but not its people. Today people from other parts of India and from all over the world flock to this enchanting place lured by its fascinating beauty. It remains as a favourite tourist destination to many, and almost everybody I meet nowadays seems to wish to buy property there.

Tony Fernandes