India has about 5.5 lakhs Bridges of various types such as Roads, Rail, Military, Water (Aqueducts), Jetties at the Ports. Many of these bridges are more than 100 years old. Bridge Engineering technology is getting revolutionized and longer spans are being adopted for e.g. of Cable Stayed Bridges are Worli-Bandra Sea Link in Mumbai, Bridge Over River Yamuna at Naini, near Allahabad and Railway Road Bridge in Bangalore area. Though there are several professional institutions dealing with various Branches of Engineering, there was no separate professional institute solely dedicated & devoted to the ART & SCIENCE OF BRIDGE ENGINEERING.
ER. MADHAV BHIDE who spent 33 years in Indian Railway Service of Engineers and retired as Chief Engineer of Central Railway, he greatly felt the need for such an institution. Therefore after a great effort he founded INDIAN INSTITUTION OF BRIDGE ENGINEERS (I.I.B.E.) in January 1989. He has been continuously and tirelessly working for this institution (I.I.B.E.) for the last 25 years.
I.I.B.E. has been doing great work of disseminating knowledge by way of International & National Seminars, Workshops, Training Programmes & Technical Lectures which has benefited thousands and thousands of Engineers across the length & breadth of India through its 33 Centres with headquarters in Mumbai.
It has therefore been decided that I.I.B.E. will celebrate its SILVER JUBILEE FUNCTION with a grand function which will be held in the evening of Friday 12th December, 2014 in Ranga Sharada Auditorium at Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West, Mumbai.
I.I.B.E. is happy that Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of Transport because of whom 55 Flyovers in Mumbai Area and Mumbai-Pune Expressways were constructed during his tenure as Hon’ble PWD Minister earlier. Further Member Engineering, Railway Board, Shri V. K. Gupta & Director General (Road Development) & Special Secretary, Shri S. N. Das are GUESTS OF HONOUR.
I.I.B.E. held several MOST OUTSTANDING BRIDGE NATIONAL AWARD (MOBNA) Competitions and appreciated and awarded good work done by many Bridge Engineering contracting companies, Bridge Consultants and Owners who all made it possible.
During Silver Jubilee Function many of them as well as number of Senior Engineers of the country who helped Er. Madhav Bhide to make the sibling which he had planted 25 years back to become a big banyan tree will be felicitated. Large number of Bridge Engineers including those from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nashik& Mumbai itself will be participating in this Silver Jubilee Function.
It is very creditable to I.I.B.E. to organize 12 International and 28 National Seminars and bring out 29,200 pages of very useful Technical Documentation which has greatly benefited Bridge Engineering fraternity. These seminars were held in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Nashik, Hyderabad, Kochi, Shillong, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Jaipur, Chennai. Guwahati, etc.
There is a dire need for managing these lakhs of bridges and I.I.B.E. has been advocating a proper Bridge Management Programme to properly maintain and improve the life of these bridges resulting in economy & efficiency. It is heartening to note that under the dynamic leadership of ShriNitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of Transport, an ambitious programme is being launched. Er. Madhav Bhide and his entire team of Bridge Engineers under I.I.B.E. deserve to be congratulated and appreciated for their contribution for the noble causes & missions of I.I.B.E.
source : Lokesh Shastri