“Praise the bridge that carried you over:” Carlo Collodi (Well known Italian children's writer). In the case of the old bridge across Godavari river at Soan however, praise needs to be complemented by conservation.

This unique 82-year-old masonry arch stone bridge on the Adilabad-Nizamabad district border in Nirmal mandal cries for attention as time and weather have begun taking their toll.

The growth of banyan trees from the crevices in the stone structure is attaining threatening proportions which can cause withering of the structure in a few years from now. Conservation is the only answer to protect this monument of a bridge, an engineering marvel from the times of the Nizam’s rule.

“Conservation of this high-level 776 metre-long bridge will only be a tribute to the engineers and hundreds of workers who must have toiled for months, if not years, to build a structure of such great proportions. Preservation is also needed to protect some of the aspects associated with the bridge which signify human values and emotions,” observes retired engineer Kari Venkat Rao.

An example of the human emotions attached to the bridge was to be found in the now damaged inaugural plaque which according to Mr. Venkat Rao, carried a verse seeking forgiveness of the river for having hindered its free flow by way of the bridge. The decipherable part of the verse composed by Jaleel Manakpuri, the Ustad or teacher of the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, talks about the scenic flow of the river and the flow of traffic on the bridge.

The poet, who went with the tile of Fasahat Jung, also seeks a long life for the Nizam who is believed to have attended the inaugural function of the bridge in Fasli 1531. The flow of the river alas, has long since been obstructed by the Sri Ram Sagar project a couple of km upstream and visible from the bridge.

The bridge, which was unequal to the demands of the developments in the transport field, went out of use in 2009 when the new twin bridges on the four-lane NH 44 came up. Complete damage to the structure cannot be ruled out given its current state as banyan trees are from the crevices in the stone continue to grow in size.