11/10/2022
Reviving memories, it triggered a huge response when Jalaluddin Shah shared the 1860 photograph of a bridge in , insisting that he has seen it unchanged even in 1960. Bansilal Kuchroo, perhaps a resident of Baramulla said that it was called Razia Kaddal. “It was a swinging bridge of wooden planks and nailed together but was hanging on steel wires across the Jehlum river,” Kachroo wrote. “It was a connection between the old Ram ghat there I clearly remember a book shop and Was called Buda general shop this was a name given to an old NC carder by SMA (Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) in 1949. The other side was connected to Baramulla civil government hospital.”
The most interesting piece of information was added by engineer Akhtar Kawdarie. The bridge, they wrote, was constructed under the supervision of my great grandfather, Ghulam Qadir Kawdari, father of my Grandfather Abdul Salam Kawadri - then an A-category contractor. “Dadaji did a big role in getting permission for the electricity to Baramulla town approval from the then Congress (government) from Delhi,” Kawdar wrote. “It took one year to cross the lines and installation of electric poles from the main market to Virwan and especially to get lines erected from this side of (the) river to (the) other side.”
