Howrah Bridge click ban may go

KOLKATA: It may soon become possible for you to click photographs on Howrah Bridge, arguably Kolkata’s most-photographed structure and, for many around the world, an essential part of the city’s skyline.

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), which owns and maintains the bridge, is considering withdrawal of restrictions on photography on the bridge. “Such restrictions may have no relevance today when satellite images of all structures and locations are readily available on the internet,” KoPT chairman Vinit Kumar said. “We will take a decision on this issue soon,” he added.



Tales of tourists as well as Kolkata residents getting into trouble for clicking pictures on the bridge are part of city lore. One of the victims of this strange rule has been Richard I’Anson, one of Australia’s leading travel photographers, who recounted in an interview his ordeal after taking pictures from the bridge. But no one — not even senior Kolkata Police officials, burdened with implementing the no-photography rule — knows for certain the reason for this rule.

A senior KoPT official ventured a probable explanation, linking the photography ban to the period of construction and inauguration of the structure in 1943 in the middle of World War II: “Japanese aircraft were bombing Kolkata regularly. So the bridge was thrown open to traffic in February 1943 at night (no lights were lit) to prevent detection from air. And it worked.”

Bridge was a strategic installation by the British

When the Mitsubishi K-21 ‘Sally’ heavy bombers targeted Kolkata, the docks bore the brunt of the bombs dropped, but the bridge, a few kilometres north, remained untouched.

The British were very apprehensive of any photograph of the megastructure falling into enemy hands. It was considered a strategic installation.” Later, during the wars with China and Pakistan, the notification was reissued and then remained in place.

But there are exceptions to the ban. “There are set tariffs for commercial filming on the bridge and we also allow concessions,” an official said. The last major Bollywood film to be shot on the bridge was Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Piku.

Renowned photographer and Padmashri Raghu Rai rubbishes the restrictions. “These are unnecessary restrictions. There are restrictions at airports as well but now everybody clicks photographs there. The trouble is that people with some power try to impose it on others. Our nation was enslaved for so long that we have not yet learnt to pass on the power of freedom to others,” he said.