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| old Victoria Bridge of Mandi, HP, India in.pinterest.com |
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| ld Victoria Bridge of Mandi, HP, Indiawikimapia.org |
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| old Victoria Bridge of Mandi, HP, India himachal.punjabkesari.in |
Since most of the old colonial railway or road bridges need to be saved for their heritage values, the advantage we have is we get a chance to be familiar with old constructions technology and materials that gave them far better stability in different terrains and in the present scenario the durability of such civil works, etc is not satisfactory. The Victoria Suspension bridge in Mandi, HP is one of the oldest bridges built by the princely state. The present Himachal Pradesh government made all efforts to save this heritage bridge. Their efforts deserve appreciation from the public in particular from heritage lovers and historians.
The famous 76 m Victoria Bridge of Mandi here that connects Purani - old Mandi and Mandi town was built in 1877 by Raja Vijay Singh using the Victoria bridge across the river Thames in London as a model with help from the British engineers of London and Kolkata.
Victoria Bridge, Mundi was closed for heavy vehicles for two reasons: 01. It is more than 142 years old and served this town for a long time despite heavy rains and surge of water during flooding's. 02. The bridge was then designed to carry only small vehicles. The old bridge's design style is similar to the Lakshman Jhula bridge first Suspension Bridge of U.P across the Ganga, Span - 450 feet; Carriage Way - 6 feet and a jeep could pass through. A gift of Rai Bahadur Surajmal Jhunjhunwala father of Rai Bahadur Shewpershad Tulshan, local chieftain, it was built byU.P.P.W.D. during 1927-1929 and opened to traffic on 11 April 1930. The princely state of Mandi named it the Vijay Kesari bridge.
A better and strong bridge became a necessity, so it was built to carry more load and traffic. Considering the future needs and growth of population and heavy vehicle movement, CM Jai Ram Thakur in 2019 had another bridge constructed and opened to traffic and it is called Sardar Patel Bridge (or New Victoria Bridge) near the old Victoria Bridge .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Bridge,_Mandi
