PANDIT JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU ACCOMPANIED BY INDIRA GANDHI AND HER FAMILY ON WAY TO SRINAGAR CROSSING RAMBAN BRIDGE ON FOOT IN MAY 1948.
When Maharaja Gulab Singh took over the reins of the J&K state, he decided to develop Udhampur , Ramban and Banihal route to travel to Kashmir. This road came to be known as Banihal Cart Road or B.C.Road. At Ramban, a small wooden bridge was built over river Chenab for movement of men and material.Later , a suspension bridge was built over river Chenab . For many many years , this suspension bridge was the only link to Kashmir valley for movement of men ,material and motor vehicles. Passengers had to get down and cross the bridge on foot. Thereafter, the vehicle would slowly cross the bridge . The passengers then boarded the vehicle across the bridge.This suspension bridge was completed during the rule of Maharaja Partap Singh who sat in the first vehicle that passed over this bridge on 2nd May 1921 .This was annual Darbaar move from Jammu to Srinagar.The RCC bridge that is in use currently was built much later in late sixties of the last century.And in 2004 , the old suspension bridge was declared unsafe for vehicular traffic. A motorable bridge was built over river Jhelum at Sangam near Bijbihara town by Maharaja Partap Singh in 1910. Before that , passengers would generally use Doongas or river link to travel from Khannabal to Srinagar .The Dogra rulers built another bridge at Lakhanpur over River Ravi linking the State of Jammu And Kashmir with Punjab. The Dogra rulers also built Kohala bridge linking what is now POK with Srinagar .
RAMBAN BRIDGE IN THE DOGRA FOLKLORE..
The bridge uplifted the status of Ramban which at the moment is a district from a mere 15 households. The bridge brought unimaginable happiness and development in the area and the subsequent Dogra rulers used this route to go to the Kashmir valley. The construction of the bridge entered Dogra folklore.
Ramban pul baneya
Baneya vaaj garariya
Teri meri preet lagiye,
lagiye vaaj rawariya
........Dhaare tudaan peiyaan
kandiyaan peiyaan barsaala
( Avtar Mota )
PS
"Dhaare tudaan peiyaan
Kandian peyiyaan barsaala..."
(The mountain tops had a snowfall
and the Kandi area had rains)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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