The Indian capital’s new ‘Eiffel Tower’ is supposed to a be structure that says ‘Namaste’

• Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, inaugurated the ‘Signature Bridge’ on 4 November and it will be open to the public starting today.
  
• Being pegged as India’s ‘Eiffel Tower’, the structure is actually supposed to emulate the gesture of saying ‘Namaste’.
  
• The bridge is expected to reduce the travel time to ten minutes for a journey that would ordinarily take at least forty-five minutes to complete.
  

New Delhi’s ‘Signature Bridge’ was inaugurated on Sunday and is being pegged as the national capital’s own Eiffel Tower. But, more than the Paris’ iconic monument, the pylon structure was meant to emulate the gesture of saying ‘Namaste’, which is a customary Hindu greeting.



The ‘Signature Bridge’ stretches across the city’s main river, the Yamuna, connecting the eastern end of the city to the western end. The aim is to decongest the roads and help daily commuters that usually have to endure arduous traffic jams.

In fact, the journey from the outskirts of the city to the centre normally takes 45 minutes. But, with the bridge, the Indian government is claiming that the transit time will likely be cut down to just 10 minutes instead.

Moreover, the bridge would save on the fuel consumption and help contain the capital’s abysmal air quality.

But, in its likeness to the Eiffel Tower, there’s a glass box on top of the bridge at 154 meters that serves as the viewing gallery. There are four elevators that can bring people up to box, which in turn, can support up to 50 visitors at one time.

Unfortunately, the viewing gallery hasn’t quite been completed yet, which is why the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC) will close the bridge for a couple of hours (11 PM to 5AM) for a month following Diwali, one of India’s most iconic Hindu festivals.

Even if you can’t go up to the gallery, there are designated selfie spots to stop and pose for pictures along the 575-meter bridge.

Creating a ‘civil engineering spectacle’

Inaugurated by the city’s Chief Minister (CM) and Deputy CM, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, the ‘civil engineering spectacle’ was originally meant to launch fourteen years ago. That’s an unreasonable amount of time even taking into consideration that infrastructure projects don’t normally run on dedicated deadlines in India.

It took ₹15.18 billion to finally open the bridge to the public with Kejriwal claiming that Delhi’s newest tourist spot would attract, not only local but international visitors. He added that the Signature Bridge will be at par with the Qutub Minar and India Gate with respect to its popularity.

The new landmark is already twice the height of the former.