01/04/2015
Everyone know the METRO MAN. Does anyone know The "BRIDGE MAN"?
we live in a country where OBAMA was given too much attention by the media and this real hero deserves nothing.'clap for our media'.
Girish Bharadwaj builds suspension bridges that connect isolated villages with opportunity and link them to future.
Mechanical Engineer, Ist class, 1973 batch, P.E.S. College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka.On father’s directive set up a workshop in Sullia to repair farm machinery.Girish Bharadwaj’s story would have ended there, if Forest Officer Narayan had not been transferred from Sullia to Kushalnagar. “Can you connect an island (Nisargadham) in Cauvery to mainland?” he asked GB one day. It was a 50 m span and there were big trees on both sides. With help from a friend who had seen the Lakshman Jhoola, GB arranged to hang a pathway of wooden slats from wire ropes with steel rods as suspenders. “There was no design,” he said. “Only trial and error.”
He was the knight who would lead them out of isolation. “I asked for time, referred to books and decided on a suspension footbridge,” he said. “You know, I got my inspiration studying the Golden Gate!”
Villagers in India are made of steely stuff. “Make it low-cost,” they said, and went house to house raising money. When he rolled his machinery to the site, 40 volunteers waited with building material. Wooden planks stood stacked. Women served snacks and tea. Two months later, in August 1989, GB’s first, self-designed suspension footbridge, three feet wide, stood inviting. He became the local hero.
