Iruvaram Bridge

Iruvaram Bridge which was constructed over the chittoor river has been a primary line of connection for the people of Chittoor to places like Palamaner,Madanapalli,Bangalore,Gudiyattam,Paradarami etc.,One of the plates of this 73-year-old bridge collapsed last year, when an overweight truck went over it. The incident claimed few lives including the truck driver and others who were playing under the Bridge. Though the officials were aware of the situation of the ageing bridge, they took little or no steps in disallowing heavy trucks running over it, except placing a warning board.The sad news is this incident happened just after the assembly and Parliamentary polls , so as usual we cannot expect much from the rulers side , if we have to go by the past record. Government didn’t seem to initiate any steps for the re-erecting the structure. So people had to use either longer Madras bypass road or shorter Iruvaram street road. For many reasons other than big vehicles like Volvo buses and heavy trucks, preferred to use this Iruvaram street road.The Iruvaram road, which is at an angle of around 45 degrees to the Bangalore-Madras bye pass road, first vehicles have to occupy the whole road and adjust itself several times to and fro before entering in to this street road. After entering the single lane narrow road welcomes us with a lot of potholes, poor lighting etc., making journey least happy. Even the residents of this locality feel difficulty to walk in this road because of the traffic. After a few months of this sad story a patch of curve road was put here for easy entrance. After another few months one or two streetlights were planted. It’s close to one and half year now and no steps seemed to be taken to restore the bridge. Last week When I was going by this street, observed some work is being done to widen the Iruvaram road.To let this happen the bumpy mud road beside the fallen bridge is being used.Though the expansion of road is a good sign, Is this the right solution, does this solve the actual problem? One more point I wonder is even Media seems to be little concerned about this, and I see no updates regarding this since then.

In this scenario I believe the people of this town are deserve to get answers to the following questions from the concerned officials and leaders:

1) What are the developments taken so far towards the re-construction of this Bridge?

2) What are the problems that are hindering the process?

3)Will restoration of this bridge need another assembly or Parliamentary polls?

4)From the details written on two granite plates I can see the construction of this tool roughly 18 months.If with the then technology it took 18 months , why is it taking so long time now?

History Of the Bridge:I collected the following information from two Granite plates cemented to the walls of the Bridge.From the matter I saw on plates , I can say the Bridge was constructed during the then Madras Presidency.Total Cost Of Projest : Rupees 94,500.Construction Work Commenced in : September 1931.Construction Work Completed in : March 1933.Bridge was Opened for Public Use on 9th April 1933 ,by the then Raja of Bobbili "Raja Sri Rava SwethaChalapathi RamaKrishna RangaRao Bahadur" who is also the Chief Minister to the Govt of Madras.