Howrah Bridge, Kolkata

Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge which connects twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata. It was commissioned in the year 1943. It was previously named as new Howrah Bridge. It replaced Pontoon bridge. On 14th June 1965, it was renamed as Rabindra Setu after Nobel Laureate Ravindranath Tagore. 

In the year 1906 Port Commission appointed a committee headed by R S Highet, Chief engineer of East India Railways for study. It was proposed to make a floating Bridge. A tender was extended and awarded to a company. However the construction work got stalled due to start of World War I.  In 1921 Mukherjee committee headed by R N Mukherjee referred the matter to Sir Basil Mott who proposed an arch bridge in 1922. New Howrah Bridge Commission submitted report in 1926. New Howrah Bridge Act was passed. In 1930 Goode committee was formed.  M/s Rendel Palmer & Trittion recommended for suspension bridge following which global tenders were floated. A German company quoted the lowest price. However that tender was not awarded due to ongoing tension between Britain and Germany. 

Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop Construction Company was awarded the contract. Construction stopped once again due to World War 2,  mainly because all raw materials required for the bridge was diverted to war. Fabrication and erection contract was later awarded to Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop Construction Company. The project costed 25 million pounds. Due to World War 2, the bridge did not had a formal opening. It was finally commissioned in the year 1943. It is third largest cantilever Bridge in the world. Bridge deck hangs from panel point in lower cord of truss with 39 pairs of hangers. 

It is maintained by Kolkata Port Trust. Initially, it had a problem of corrosion due to bird dropping. It was cleaned with annual cost of 5 lacs. After which, it was painted with primer zinc chromate and later painted with aluminium paint. Apart from this, hangers need to be protected from corrosion as well. Kolkata Port Trust covered the base of steel pillars with fiberglass casings to prevent corrosion. 

On 24th June 2005, a cargo vessel named MV Mani had his funnel stuck underneath the bridge. It was trying to pass below the bridge during high tide. It caused substantial damage to the bridge. Immediately Kolkata Port Trust swung into action. Original Consultants M/s Rendel Palmer & Trittion from UK were called upon. Steel Authority of India supplied matching steel. Finally repair work was completed by 2006.

Many Indian films featured Howrah Bridge. Howrah Bridge is not a bridge, it is an emotion for local people.

Mother Teresa’s House

Mother's House is located at AJC Bose Road in Kolkata, in Indian state of West Bengal. This was the home of Nobel Laureate and Saint - Mother Teresa - from 1953. After her death in 1997, she was buried on the ground floor of this building. Since then, this place is a pilgrimage place. Mother’s  Tomb is visited by thousands of people, on yearly basis. 

Mother's house consists of Tomb, a museum and Mothers living room. The first room of the building contains Mother's tomb. Mother Teresa was buried at this place on 13th September 1997. This room is a zone of absolute silence. Many people come and pray here. It is said the uncountable numbers of prayers gets answered from this place. Many people got benefit of prayers offered here. 

The second room is, the museum. It contains articles used by Mother during her lifetime. The utensils, clothes, pens, writing pad etc used by Mother, can be seen here. You can even find the medical kit use for her. You can even see The Bharat Ratna Award - which is the highest civilian award in India. Interestingly, you can also find Nobel Prize awarded to her. In the museum, many newspaper articles are also well kept. 

The third room is Mother’s living room. This is situated on the mezzanine floor of the building. It is a small and simple room. It has one bed, one table, one chair and a ceiling fan. Notably this room does not have air condition. One more interesting thing to note is, this room is situated above kitchen. At times during summer, the room used get terribly hot but Mother never complained about that. Mother left for her heavenly Abode on 5th September 1997 from this room.

Mother's house is well connected by a network of buses to the rest part of the city. Traditional yellow taxis can be taken to reach this place as well. App Cabs like Ola and Uber too offers excellent connectivity.

St John’s Church, Kolkata

St John's Church was built by East India Company after Calcutta became Capital of British India. It is situated on the north west corner of Raj Bhawan – The Governor’s House.  It acted as Anglian Cathedral till 1847 and was known as Saint Paul's Cathedral. The construction work started 1784 and ended in 1787. The cost of construction at that time was Rs 30,000/-. It is third oldest church in Kolkata after Armenian Church and Kolkata Mission Church.

It was built on the land given by Maharaja Nobo Kishan Bahadur of Shobhabazar Raj Family. Founding stone of this was put by Lord Warren Hastings on 6th April 1784. The architect of the structure was Sir James Agg. This is also called “Pathurer Church” (Stone Church) by locals. Its is made by the stones from ruins of Gour Kingdom from Central Bengal. Stones from Gour were getting shipped and were robbed. Afterwhich, stones were taken there for building the church.

The Church has a beautiful interior, made up of stones. Its walls have many Memorial tablets. The front of the church has old piano. In one of the rooms, you will find Warren Hastings’ chair kept inside a glass cubicle. 

The compound of the church has some of interesting historical monuments. First to quote is Monument Of Black Hole. It is built in memory of survivors of the incident. The incident dates back when Nawab of Bengal – Shiraj Ud Daulah - captured British soldiers in the hottest month of June and put them to a small prison. Next day morning, when prison doors were opened many British soldiers died due to heat. However, this is a controversial event as per few schools of thought. Previously this structure was located in the place of occurrence of the incident – which was thought to be near General Post Office in Kolkata. In 1940’s when Independence movement was on peak, this was brought to the current location. It was done after protest led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Church compound also has Rohilla War Memorial, which the marks sacrifice of British soldiers during war between Rohilla and Nawab of Awadh. It may be noted that British backed Nawab Of Awadh in this war. 

Mausoleum of Job Charnock is another structure in the premises. Charnock was a trader who came to India. He is known for his efforts to combine Sutanuti,  Gobindopur and Kalikata to form modern city of Calcutta. His mausoleum was made by his son-in-law. Stones for building his mausoleum was brought from Pallavaram near Chennai. It was known as Charnokite. It also contains Grave of Charnock's wife and his first born daughter. 

One more Grave worth mentioning is of Mrs Francis Johnson who was known as Begum. She was the grand old lady of the city. She lived till 89 years and married multiple times. 

One can also find grave of Lord Brabourne, after whose name Brabourne Road in Kolkata was named. One would also find memorial structure for wife of Lord Canning – Governor General Of India. She died of Malaria and buried in a place called Barrackpore. Her name is attached with Bengali sweet “Ledikini” which was dedicated to “Lady Of Canning”. This sweet is made famous by  Bhim Nag-  one of the noted sweet distributor in Kolkata.

At present the church is under Archaeological Survey of India and is protected monument. It is open on all days. There is a mass on every Sunday.

This place is well connected. Nearest metro station is Esplanade. Buses also connect this place to rest of the city. App Cabs like Ola and Uber provides good connectivity as well.

Next time you are in Kolkata do not miss place.