The bridge over the river Gorai

Gorai is the second largest river from Kushtia district after river Padma. The main town of the Kushtia district is situated by the river Gorai. This river originated from the Padma river in Kushtia. This famous river has a couple of bridges over it. One is specifically for the railroad communication. It was built by the British East India company. Construction begun in 1865 and later the bridge was open to public in 1st January of 1871. Which makes the bridge is an old one having an age of more than 150 years.

Gorai rail bridge has 7 spans all together over 8 piers. Each of the spans are 185 feet long which makes the bridge 1295 feet long.This bridge went through several renovations and reconstructions over the years. The first one was done by the British during 1936. This railway investment was a part of having better communication with Dhaka, which was aiming to have another bridge near Aricha. But that project never saw a light and ended up leaving this bridge here alone with a couple of other smaller bridges over river Kumar and Ichamati. These bridges were a help to have a better connection between Kolkata and Faridpur (which was an important district from Bangladesh during the British era). See this for more information.

Gorai has another bridge which was built recently. After visiting the Lalon Akhra and the house of Mir Mosharraf Hossain I was heading towards the Kuthi bari mela of Shelaidah, which was arranged to commemorate the 149th birthday of the royal poet Rabindranath tagore. On my way I took a pause near the Gorai bridge, which is also known as Mir Mosharaf Hossain Bridge. It took several minutes to cross the bridge. Also after exploring the sandy river I was almost tired. People were moving towards the Kuthi bari mela of Shelaidah, and every single vehicle was packed with tons of people. So I found it hard to manage any public vehicle for a while, until a Nosimon (a fancy local name) came and rescued me from the odd situation.

This bridge was built to aid day to day communication through the road. There are two bridges over the Gorai river, one for the train and another one for the buses and other vehicles. This bridge connects the Kumarkhali upazela with the main district town.