'Surat must learn conservation from the world'

AHMEDABAD: While the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) wants to sell the 134-year-old Hope Bridge as scrap, citizens and governments elsewhere in the world take pride in preserving old bridges which they consider as their 'cultural environmental values', said I A Patel, a philatelist with a collection on bridges. His stamp collection on bridges won him a silver medal at the International INDIPEX-2011 exhibition at New Delhi in February 2011.
Deputy executive engineer at Central Designs Organization, Gandhinagar, Patel cited the example of the Kapellbrucke and the Spreurerbrucke, a pair of wooden covered bridges, which exist in the city of Lucerene, Switzerland, since 1333. The bridges are of great cultural as well as heritage value being the early form of wooden covered bridge type. To preserve them with frequent repair and maintenance, the postal authority of Switzerland imposed postal surtax to collect funds. With elaborate efforts and support from the citizens, both the bridges have become famous tourist attractions in Lucerne.
In France, the government has strived to preserve the remnants of the Pont Saint-Benezet at Avignon, Patel said. Built in 1177, it is regarded as the first major bridge built in medieval Europe a churchman. It is believed that the original bridge was 900 m long consisting 20 or 21 flat segmental masonry arches. Presently, only three of its arch spans exist. A few spans of this bridge were destroyed in 1385 on the order of Pope Boniface IX for reasons of self-defence. Later on a few more spans collapsed in 1602, 1633 and in 1670, a heavy flood of ice carried away all, but the three arches standing now. There is a small chapel over the second pier in which Saint Benezet is buried.
In countries like France, Italy, Spain and Turkey some of the magnificent Roman bridges are still intact even after 2000 years. The classic example of a partially existing Roman bridge is Old Stone Bridge at Rimini in Italy. The governments of these countries are making all efforts to preserve these bridges in whatever condition they are, said Patel in a letter to this newspaper.
New London Bridge, built by one of the greatest bridge builders, John Rennie, in 1831 was dismantled piece by piece in 1970 and re-erected at Lake Havasu in Arizona, US, in 1971.
Arguing for the preservation of Surat's Hope Bridge, Patel said that it displays the cultural as well as technical values of the era when it was built 134 years ago. It is of great importance that we learn from our own history, he said.