Rajiv Ranjan Jaruhar has the accomplishment of building some of the most difficult bridges in India. These include the Kolia Bhomora Setu over the Brahmaputra, the Bagha Chhitauni bridge over the Gandak, the New Ganga bridge and the upgraded Rameswaram bridge. An engineer in the Indian Railways, he was posted to Tori Kumandih in the beautiful Chhota Nagpur region, followed by Tezpur, Gorakhpur, Firozpur and New Delhi. He has put his retirement to good use, coming up with a book Railway Man: An Engineer’s Memoir, which describes in detail the trying conditions in which he had often worked turning adversities around to achieve success.
A candid appraisal about his journey in the Indian Railways, Jaruhar recounts the ups and downs of his career with a compelling frankness. Excerpts from an interview with BL
Building a bridge across the Brahmaputra was a huge challenge as I had no knowledge of rivers and river management. VCA Padmanabhan, member engineering, Railway Board, picked me up for this assignment, saying that this work would change my life. I had no idea what the work would entail but Padmanabhan believed I had the knack of learning on the job. I was advised to observe the Brahmaputra and to learn as much as possible from the experiences of the local boatmen and fishermen who understood the river and how it flowed. I followed their advice before I designed it. Work started in 1980 against the backdrop of the Assam agitation and this created its own problems. The bridge called Kolia Bhomora Setu was 3,015 metres long and was completed in 1987 and I can proudly say it has played a key role in the development of the north-eastern states.
What was the difference between the bridge built over the Brahmaputra and that on the Gandak?
There were a lot of differences. The volume of water flow in the Brahmaputra is much larger — 90,000 cubic metres per second, while in the Gandak it is 26,000 cubic metre per second. We could work for only 135 days in a year in the Brahmaputra while we had 150 days working time in the Gandak. The site conditions at the Gandak were very bad. I was literally thrown there with no support of any kind. I was pulled down by my old colleagues who would have been happy to see me fail. Communications at that location were terrible and the area was infested with dacoits. Also, in the case of the Gandak, we had to literally train the river into a single stream and I have described this in detail in my book. Our success is manifest from the fact that the river is not creating havoc anymore. In doing so, we helped reclaim 60 sq km of land which helped provide enormous social benefits to farmers who got their land back.
You were also known to differ with EE Sreedharan for the construction of the Delhi Metro Rail?
I am a great admirer of Sreedharan. He is a good leader and when he takes up a project, he will ensure timely completion. My point of difference was that Indian railways carry a huge mass of people unlike metro services in the west. We should therefore go for broad gauge and wide-bodied coaches that could carry more people. They chose to import the western model which cost us ₹200 crore per kilometre whereas our indigenously manufactured technology would have cost us ₹80 crore per kilometre. Speed was not a criterion because our suburban trains are running at the same speed.
You say, “Bridges talk to me”, and that you have only to look at a bridge to know what problem it is facing...
A doctor will often know the disease by just looking at a patient. In the same way, with all my years of experience, I only have to look at a bridge to understand its problem. A bridge talks to me. A bridge is a specialised structure. You need special expertise and training to build it. It needs special maintenance and training to take care of it and that is not always forthcoming.
Rashme Sehgal is an independent journalist and author