If you googled “bridge to nowhere” you would be hit with an avalanche – more than 15 million search results! But the article lists only about two dozen bridges. Obviously there are many staggeringly large multiple countings and many more spurious or irrelevant listings! Not surprising for a google search.
Surprisingly though, there are only a few ways of reckoning a “Bridge to nowhere” and Wikipedia is helpful [1]. It says and I do not dispute, “A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken or incomplete and does not lead anywhere.”
It also adds that, “a bridge (or proposed bridge) that serves low-population areas at high cost.” A political consideration. Its utility, except in political terms, is questionable, in other words.
Three major reasons why a bridge becomes a bridge to nowhere: The bridge was never completed, because of the cost, or because of property rights; either or both the end spans have collapsed or have been destroyed – e.g., by earthquake, storm, flood, or war; the bridge is not used, but was not demolished because of the cost. For instance, the bridges on an abandoned railway line.
This is about two bridges, one abandoned before starting [2] and the other which apparently sits incomplete and idle. One is in Alaska and the other in Delhi, near the Pul Bangash Metro station. Both are road bridges, one across the sea and the other across rail tracks.
The one in Alaska connects the town of Ketchikan and Gravina Island. The funny thing is the population of Gravina is 50 people! But, it has a thriving airport, with an annual passenger load of about 200,000. The ferry service is comfortable handling about 1,000 a day, averaging out the seasonal variations. Then, why the bridge? OK, to extract money from the government sitting in Washington, DC. However, the non-existent bridge at nearly 400 million USD and promoted as an economic growth multiplier, sealed the political fate of Sarah Palin even beyond the failed pairing with John McCain’s in the 2008 US presidential election.
The bridge to nowhere in Delhi. We do not know who was the political mastermind behind this bridge, which will, if and when built, cross the rail tracks. Look at the pictures below very closely.
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The bridge stops on this side of the tracks and on the other side you have buildings standing defiantly.
The arc in the middle of the frame above is the "bridge-to-nowhere" in the Pul Bangash locality of Delhi. It has not crossed the rail tracks and it cannot because the buildings on the other side are not moving!
As you would also notice there is a bridge at street level crossing over the tracks (at a lower level). Then, why is the new carriageway being taken further elevated? Maybe it is part of an elevated stretch of a highly congested road that combines two or more crossings. I do not know, but I give the benefit of the doubt to the planners. However, I take it back almost instantaneously.
The arc in the middle of the frame above is the "bridge-to-nowhere" in the Pul Bangash locality of Delhi. It has not crossed the rail tracks and it cannot because the buildings on the other side are not moving!
As you would also notice there is a bridge at street level crossing over the tracks (at a lower level). Then, why is the new carriageway being taken further elevated? Maybe it is part of an elevated stretch of a highly congested road that combines two or more crossings. I do not know, but I give the benefit of the doubt to the planners. However, I take it back almost instantaneously.
I have seen this half-finished work for the past three years. While there have been some work – girders being placed, the deck being done etc. on this side of the track, the other side is motionless. Perhaps there is a judicial stay on work. After all, looking at the situation, the bridge is truly not going nowhere. It is running right through the bedroom in the house, as per the photograph! My question is, if the bridge cannot be completed without the other side being cleared why be active on this side?
Oh, there comes the money aspect, I suppose. So much has been sanctioned for the work. This much has been done and has to be paid. The contractor shows that the work has been done and gets paid. Citizens pay for the half-finished work but it is completely worthless. This too is corruption, is it not?
But, who exactly is corrupt? The planner, the design engineer, the construction engineer, the contractor or the politician? So, even as we paint politicians with the broad brush strokes of corruption, we do need to acknowledge that there are effectively millions of people who are corrupt. One may be able to clear the political Augean Stables but not the societal as we do not even acknowledge the latter.
The half-built bridge in Delhi is as much a product of corruption as the bridge not built in Alaska.
This post is the result of my looking out the large windows of the metro train I commute by every day, morning and evening. If only we can keep our eyes wide open and observant, we can spot corruption everywhere, even without a politician being seen there. A bridge to nowhere led me to the source of corruption – us.
Raghuram Ekambaram
References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_Nowhere
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge
2 comments:
Well, Delhi has at least half-built bridges. There are places in India (like in the Northeast) where funds have been siphoned off from the exchequer in the name of bridges that exist only on paper.
That is the point about the Wikipedia link - no instance of an Indian bridge "hanging", matheikal!
For whatever reasons, we do not demolish bridges that are not in use anymore. I do not think it is nostalgia :)As you travel by train, for every ten bridges at least for one you will see a parallel, old and unusable bridge standing.
RE
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