Padmashree awardee Girish Bharadwaj, who is an industrious social entrepreneur, popularly known as ‘Bridge Man,’ will be delivering a talk and interacting with the students at Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering & Technology (VVIET), Mysuru, under the aegis of Vidya Vikas Educational Trust, on Mar. 7 at 10 am.

Profile: Girish Bharadwaj is the proprietor of ‘Ayasshilpa’ — a general steel fabrication workshop which is also engaged in repairing farm machinery and construction of Gobar Gas plants since 1975. Born on May 12, 1950, Girish received his Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mysore in 1973. Girish started an Agro Service Centre in 1973 with his friend initially. Later in 1975, he established his own “Rational Engineering Industries” at Sullia which is now called Ayasshilpa.

Over the last 28 years, he has constructed 127 Suspension Foot Bridges (SFB) of varying spans and dimensions. Now Girish is popularly known as “Bridge Man” of the nation with the making of 128th “Suspension Foot Bridges” across 32 rivers in four States. Tony of Switzerland who builds Suspension bridges in poor countries came to see the works of Girish and treats him as “Bridge Brother.”

Girish is also Founder-Secretary of Sneha Education Society of Sullia which provides basic quality education in Kannada Medium.

Numerous awards and honours received by him include Outstanding Young Person of Karnataka (1988), two Gold Medals for his service in Home Guards, Sir M. Vishweshwarayya Award, Zilla Rajyotsava Award, ‘BE THE CHANGE’ CJ Award by CNN IBN Channel, “Peace Through Services” award by Rotary International Dist. 3140 and ‘Asamanya Kannadiga’ by Suvarna Media Network.