The news of auctioning the historic Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock Bridge across the Godavari shortly by the Railway Board came as a rude shock to the people of Rajahmundry as well as East and West Godavari district.
In a recent meeting, the General Manager of South Central Railway informed the local MLA that the Railway Board had taken a decision to auction the Bridge as scrap.
Immediately, the MLA appealed to Rajahmundry MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar to keep the decision of the Railway Board in abeyance and then represent it to Union Railway Minister and State Minister.
The issue, which has been hanging fire for long, has come to the fore again, when Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy came to Rajahmundry in the month of December, 2012.
After serving the Indian Railways for over a century, the Havelock Bridge was abandoned.
After the news was broke out, historians, academicians, intellectuals, elite and non-government organisations along with political parties decided to take up agitations to protect the historical monument.
