Seven Days of Darkness
When Harshal Bapat (Afcons Design Dept) completed his M Tech in Structural Mechanics from Delft University in The Netherlands, never in his wildest of dreams did he imagine that he would have to spend seven nightmarish days inside dark caverns of the most notorious bridge in northern India.
In February 2017, Afcons bagged the project to reconstruct the MG Setu in Patna, Bihar. Nicknamed the Kidnappers Bridge, the MG Setu, is an awe-inspiring structure. The 5.5km bridge with 47 spans was 30 meters above river Ganga. Harshal was part of this project right from start, and, worked on estimates, tendering, and, designing too.
His excitement rocketed when he was selected as a sole person for inspection and survey of the existing bridge prior to its demolition. But soon the challenges in the task started becoming clearer. Being only one of the two bridges over river Ganga, there was no question of stopping the traffic. The inspection was to be done with vehicles rumbling overhead. What followed was an example of guts and determination.
Right at the start, Harshal had to deal with the difficult entry into the segments. It was from an abutment at one end where the bridge commenced. It was pitch dark inside the segment. Every day, Harshal crawled inside the bridge carrying equipment and survey instruments through those tiny manholes.
What came as a new challenge was the noise and dust from the passing of overhead vehicles. But there was more waiting for him - bats in the dark segments. The creepy night creatures were everywhere while Harshal carved his ways through the segments every day.
The Government Officials, one day, informed him that the bridge was notorious for smugglers and extortionists, who used the caverns to keep their victims captive, or, to hide their loot. It was quite a history for him to know. No wonder, they call it ‘the Kidnappers Bridge’.
While inspecting the spans was full of challenges, the hardest part was yet to come. He had to check the pins which held the spans together. But with each displacement due to load of overhead traffic, it moved the spans irregularly leaving him to adjust in the tiny space while taking measurements. What made it trickier was the presence of huge manholes below these areas. So, standing at the edge, without a chance to use a safety harness and taking the readings, while being alert to not take a 30m fall into the river, was an experience like no other for Harshal.
Despite the testing circumstances, Harshal completed his work on time and with precision. It’s people like him that make our big projects tick. Kudos to his commitment!
