Great Indian Rivers and Railway Bridges: Compilation from Indian Railways

The Indian peninsula is blessed with a multitude of rivers, around which historic civilizations have manifested themselves in the past three decades, and societies amounting to millions of individuals, spread across a vast diversity of ethnicities have grown. Some of these rivers like the Ganga or Godavari have become religious icons, probably due to the vast areas of land they have helped make arable and support communities around it.

This video attempts to document some of these magnificent water bodies, as seen from traveling on the Indian railways, along with some magnificent engineering structures in the Indian railway network in the form of railway bridges. A number of the videos are taken in the monsoon season, when the rivers are brimming with water courtesy the heavy rains which lash India. This compilation covers 10 of the major Indian states across all major geographical regions barring the north-east. Most of the river are major inter-state rivers, traversing over at least a couple of hundred kilometres, though a couple of local rivers such as the Rupnarain in West Bengal, or the Wardha in Maharashtra are also included. The longest river within India, the Ganga is prominently featured, along with the second longest river, Godavari. Some of bridges support some high speeds like the Chambal, Rupnarain, Tapi or Mahanadi, resulting in some very high speed river crossings.

There are however some notable exceptions which I have not been able to document such as the Saraighat Bridge over the Brahmaputra, the Farakka Barrage over the Ganga, crossings of the Narmada, Kaveri, Yamuna, Tungabhadra, Gandak, Ghaghara, Kosi and the rivers forming the Indus basin. I hope that a sequel to this video would be successful in presenting these other magnificent rivers.

In order of appearance, the rivers presented in the video, and the trains from which they have been captured are:

1. River Godavari, Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh): 12663 Howrah Tiruchirapalli Express. At 2.9 km, this is arguably the finest river crossing on Indian Railways, with a fantastic pair of bridges offering some great views.

2. River Hughli, Dakshineshwar (West Bengal): 12260 New Delhi Sealdah Duronto Express. This video is captured at around 100 kmph.

3. River Mandovi, Madgaon (Goa): 12432 Trivandrum Rajdhani Express.

4. River Ganga, Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh): 12382 New Delhi Howrah Poorva Express. This is a night crossing under a full moon.

5. Koel River, Rourkela (Odisha): 18189 Tata Alleppey Express. While this is not exactly a river crossing, the tracks run parallel to the Koel river for around a kilometre and curve along with the river, providing a gorgeous view of the river in the midst of the Saranda forests. The experience is heightened by the chugging and smoking of the twin diesels hauling the Tata Alleppey Express.

6. River Mahanadi, Cuttack (Odisha): 12278 Puri Howrah Duronto Express. Witness the furious acceleration over the 2.1 km Mahanadi River.

7. River Subarnarekha, Muri (Jharkhand): 22824 Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani Express.

8. River Tapi, Surat (Gujarat): 22210 New Delhi Mumbai Duronto Express, captured at around 105 kmph.

9. River Ganga, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): 12382 New Delhi Howrah Poorva Express. The famous ghats of Varanasi can be discerned from this video.

10. Rupnarain River, Kolaghat (West Bengal): 12021 Howrah Barbil Jan Shatabdi Express. This video is captured at around 100-105 kmph.

11. River Zuari, Madgaon (Goa): 12432 Trivandrum Rajdhani Express.

12. River Brahmani, Jajpur (Odisha): 22824 Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani Express.

13. River Chambal, Dhaulpur (Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border): 12433 Chennai Rajdhani Express. The train simply blasted over the bridge at 130 kmph: undoubtedly the fastest river crossing I have experienced over a major bridge on Indian Railways.

14. River Wardha, Balharshah (Maharashtra): 12433 Chennai Rajdhani Express.

15. River Hughli, Dakshineshwar (West Bengal): 12260 New Delhi Sealdah Duronto Express. One can clearly see the famous Dakshineshwar Kali Temple in this video, where the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna lived for much of his life, and from where he initiated Swami Vivekananda into monastic life.

16. River Krishna, Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh): 12663 Howrah Tiruchirapalli Express.