Ali Usman Baig : grand trunk road

Saturday, 09 November 2019 (Date of Visit)

(All pictures and the writeup is author integral property, please respect copyright)

Pul Shah Daula, A Two-story bridge that Constructed 400 years ago.

View of Bridge from the downstream west side

Tapiala Dost Muhammad Khan is a small town located 11.7 km on Muridka-Narang Mandi Road. The old route of Grand Trunk Road passes through this town. Remains of the old Grand Trunk road still can be seen outside of this village. Also, GT Road from Tapiala (mausoleum) made the onward journey to Pul Shah Daula with an ancient arched bridge on Nullah Degh.

Dr. Saifur Rehman Dar is a famous historian and has done a detailed survey on GTR and caravanserais built along this road. According to him, the Pul shah Daula was most likely constructed in the times of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. So, the bridge is roughly 400 years old.

However, no reference in any history books could be found, that why the name of this bridge attributed to a famous saint Shah Daula, who buried in Gujrat.

I visited the site of the bridge in 2019. It is a tall bridge spanning over five arches and still operational for every type of traffic. The most fascinating thing about this bridge is that it has two stories. The piers supporting the top deck slab are rising from another deck slab which lies roughly at one foot above the current water level in the stream. Both Deck Slabs have a 20 ft difference in height.

Another View

The bridge was constructed in two phases. After the completion of the first phase of construction, the Degh Nullah (which have a source from Jammu) have seen some high floods, and the bridge got completely drowned under the water.

Shah Jahan expanded the Mughal Empire to the west beyond the Khyber Pass to Ghazna and Kandahar. For timely supplies and communication of military troops, Grand trunk road played an important role in the past. Pul Shah Daula was one of the major bridges on Grand trunk road. The news of it getting drowned must have been created a panic in Shah Jehan court. The architect assigned to design the bridge screwed for considering the wrong values of flood levels. Mughals who have all the resources and builders at that time to construct a new bridge. It seems the orders of construction of the new bridge on the existing bridge deck have come in quite a haste.

One last Burj is standing on one end of the parapet wall. The overall stability condition of this bridge does not seem to be good. Complete neglect has been observed by the concerned Government department to conserve such a great architecture of the past.