Far away view of Vidyasagar Setu during sunset in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal.

Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge , is a toll bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India, linking the cities of Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) and Howrah.

With a total length of 823 metres (2,700 ft), Vidyasagar Setu is the longest cable--stayed bridge in India and one of the longest in Asia. It was the second bridge to be built across the Hooghly River; the first, the Howrah Bridge (also known as Rabindra Setu) 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) to the north, was completed in 1943. Named after the educationist reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, it cost Indian Rupees 3.88 billion to build.

Construction began on 3 July 1979, and the bridge was commissioned on 10 October 1992 by the Hooghly River Bridge Commission. The project was a joint effort between the public and private sectors, under the control of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners. The bridge is used by around 30,000 vehicles daily, considerably less than the bridge's capacity of 85,000.

Population and commercial activity grew rapidly after India gained independence in August 1947. The only link across the Hooghly River, the Howrah Bridge, between Howrah and Kolkata, was subject to much traffic congestion, with over 85,000 vehicles every day. This necessitated planning for a new bridge across the river so that it could connect to the major cities of Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi and Chennai (Madras) through the national highways located close to the bridge.

The foundation stone for the bridge was laid by Indira Gandhi on 20 May 1972. The bridge took more than 22 years to complete and cost Indian Rupees 3.88 billion, but in seven of those years there was no construction activity. The bridge is named after the 19th-century Bengali educationist reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Work on the cable-stayed bridge started with the construction of the well curb on the Calcutta bank end on 3 July 1979, and when commissioned on October 10, 1992, it became the longest span bridge of this type in the world. At that time it was the first cable-stayed bridge in India, the largest in Asia and the third largest in the world.

There are three other bridges on the Hooghly River connecting Kolkata with Howrah district: Vivekananda Setu built in 1932, (road-cum-rail bridge) -- the first to be commissioned, and which had become old and needed repairs; Howrah Bridge, a cantilever bridge commissioned in 1943, now renamed as Rabindra Setu (since 1965 in honour of the Noble Laurette Rabindranath Tagore); and Nivedita Setu (named after Sister Nivedita), also known as the Second Vivekananda Setu, which is 50 metres (160 ft) downstream of the old Vivekananda Setu and was commissioned on 4 June 2007.

Source: Wikipedia

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