Vidyasagar Setu

Vidyasagar Setu
Coordinates	22°33′25″N 88°19′40″E / 22.5569°N 88.3278°E / 22.5569; 88.3278
Carries	Roadway only. Two-way with 3 general-purpose lanes in each direction
Crosses	Hooghly River
Locale	Kolkata and Howrah, West Bengal
Official name	Vidyasagar Setu
Other name(s)	Second Hooghly Bridge
Maintained by	Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners
Characteristics
Design	Cable-stayed bridge
Total length	822.96 metres (2,700 ft)
Width	35 metres (115 ft)
Longest span	457.2 metres (1,500 ft)
Clearance below	26 metres (85 ft)
History
Constructed by	Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company
Opened	10 October 1992; 31 years ago (10 October 1992)
Statistics
Daily traffic	~90,000 vehicles (as of 2018)[1]
Toll	Yes, toll bridge
Location

Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, is a 822.96 meter long cable-stayed 6 laned toll bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India, linking the cities of Kolkata and Howrah.

Opened in 1992, with a total length of 823 metres (2,700 ft), Vidyasagar Setu was the first^[2] and longest cable-stayed bridge in India at the time of it's inauguration. It was the second bridge to be built across the Hooghly River and was named after the education reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. The project had a cost of ₹388 crore to build. The project was a joint effort between the public and private sectors, under the control of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC).^[3]

The importance of the bridge has increased manifold since 2013, as the West Bengal State Secretariat had shifted its office to Nabanna, located adjacent to the bridge on the Howrah side.^{[citation needed]}

Initially, under the toll collection regime of the HRBC, daily traffic was recorded to be a minimum of 28,000 vehicles and a maximum of 39,000 vehicles in 2000, but fell to a maximum of around 30,000 vehicles by December 2002, when the management of the toll plaza was handed over to a private firm. Subsequently, the daily traffic reached a minimum of 45,000 vehicles and a maximum of 61,000 vehicles by early 2008, against a maximum capacity of 85,000 vehicles per day. The original management of the toll revenue collection by HRBC was consequently criticized for corruption and significant loss of revenue.^[4]