Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday named the newly-built Majerhat bridge in Kolkata as ’Jai Hind’ bridge to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose. The new bridge, which has been built in the place of an old one that collapsed in September 2018, will be inaugurated by Banerjee on Thursday at 5 pm.

”As part of the celebrations of Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, we have decided to name the new Majerhat bridge as ’Jai Hind’ bridge,” she said. ”We will take forward the ’Jai Hind’ slogan of Bose as well as his ideology,” she added.

The 650-metre-long bridge will be thrown open to traffic as soon as Banerjee inaugurates it, officials said. The bridge, on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road, connects the central part of the city to the soutwestern suburbs of Behala and beyond.

Two persons were killed as a portion of the old bridge collapsed on September 4, 2018, leading to years of hassles for the lakhs of people living in Behala, Thakurpukur, Joka and Maheshtala, besides large parts of the South 24 Parganas. They had to take kilomtres of detour, often getting stuck in the traffic for hours on the narrower alternate roads, to reach the central business district.

Following the collapse, the entire structure was demolished to build the new cable-stayed bridge, which is over the railway tracks along the Majerhat station.