Bhopal's Infamous 90-Degree Bridge To Be Redesigned After Months of Outrage

The controversial 90-degree Railway Overbridge (ROB) in Bhopal's Aishbagh, which has been mocked across the country for its 'faulty design', will now be redesigned and opened to the public, bringing an end to a 10-month-long deadlock between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Railways.

The breakthrough came after a high-level meeting where both agencies agreed to fix what many had called a "death trap in concrete."

At the heart of the controversy was a dangerously sharp turn nearly 90 degrees that made the bridge virtually unusable.

Vehicles attempting to navigate the curve faced a serious risk of skidding or overturning, raising fears of fatal accidents even before the bridge could be inaugurated.

Now, authorities claim that the 'deadly flaw' will be corrected.

According to the revised plan, the curve's radius will be increased from a mere 2 meters to around 2.5 meters. The width of the bridge will also be expanded from 8.5 meters to between 10.5 and 11 meters. Officials say this will allow not just cars, but even medium and heavy vehicles to pass safely.

Work on the redesign is expected to begin within the next four to five days, once final technical specifications are received from the Railways. The same company that built the flawed structure has been tasked with fixing it.

Built at a cost of nearly Rs 18 crore, the overbridge was completed in June 2025 but never opened.

Just days before the overbridge's scheduled inauguration, images of the bizarre 90-degree turn surfaced, triggering outrage.

What followed was a storm of criticism, memes, and international attention, turning the bridge into a global case study of questionable infrastructure planning.

The fallout was swift. Seven Public Works Department (PWD) engineers were suspended, and multiple expert agencies, including MANIT, were roped in to assess the structure and suggest corrective measures.

Investigations revealed that the presence of an adjacent Metro line had severely constrained the design, making it difficult to widen the curve. This led to months of technical back-and-forth between the Railways and the PWD, delaying any resolution.

Now, after nearly a year of embarrassment, delays, and bureaucratic tug-of-war, the authorities claim to have cracked the solution.

For residents of Bhopal, however, the bigger question remains: how did a project of this scale, funded with public money, get approved with such a glaring flaw? The bridge may soon open. But the questions it raised are far from closed.