This river bed is actually the site of the Battle of Basantar (1971) where 2/Lt Arun Khetarpal got a posthumous Param Vir Chakra for destroying 3 enemy tanks.

Sympathetic detonation is the setting off of explosions due to detonation in surrounding charges - typically, it is due to accident/. mishandling. The bridge coiuld have been rigged for demoliton to deny access to enemy, but something, like a unsafe detonator, direct hit could have triggered the explosion - hence the term 'sympathetic detonation

Thanks a lot! I was nostalgic for a while after browsing this album :-)

The people in our 2AC compartment had drawn all the curtains, so we could only see out of our side berth windows. And to compound the error we opened the door on the same (wrong) side to take this shot!

Oops! - B Vohra has written to say that this is not a picture of damage but of remedy. The gap behind the arch has been kept to be filled up with concrete and counter the heaving.

On the memorial plaque for the 1971 Battle of Hussainiwala it is mentioned that the bridge was destroyed because of a "sympathetic detonation". My interpretation - the bridge had been wired for demolition in case the troops had to retreat to the eastern bank, but it blew up when a shell landed on or near it.

I forgot to add that the damage to the structure was inflicted during the 1971 battle and that the bridge itself came down due to a "sympathetic detonation" during that same battle. Yes, there is an identical structure on the eastern bank. Thanks Jay, for the very thoughtful link to the google placemark!

Thank you all for the kind words.
Saifullah - we were guests of NR's Special Projects Construction Team and their on-site contractors & workers - ordinary people doing an extraordinary engineering job in difficult terrain, with a security situation that tends to get dicey ever so often. Rajeev Shrivastava had commented about the message on the buffer in an earlier post, which stuck in my mind somehow.

Great view.

Simply awesome