Five years on, no bridge in sight

RAYAGADA: It’s almost five years since a bridge over the Bansadhara river near Gumada, an important link for vehicles plying between Bhubaneswar and undivided Koraput district on the State highway, collapsed in heavy floods. Though the State Government had promised to build a bridge a year after the incident, it is yet to come up. Although the affected villagers formed a Gumuda Sethu Nirmana Samiti which staged agitations protesting the delay, this too has failed too evoke any response. In the absence of the bridge, normal life has been badly hit in the region. The buses plying between Berhampur and Rayagada and Bhubaneswar-Jeypore are now skipping Gumuda and making a detour through Padampur, adding an additional 40 km to their journey. People residing in villages like  Gumuda, Lunapadar, Ramanguda, Derigaon, Karnapatar, Birikota, Antareli and Kareni that are located on both sides of the river are adversely affected. Children studying in Gudari have to cross the river bed and the small traders and businessmen are not spared of the trouble either. They have to depend upon rickety boats to cross the river. The situation worsens during monsoon when the river would be in spate.  Soon after the collapse, the then chief secretary and the revenue minister conducted an aerial survey and promised that the construction of a new bridge would start by November 2007. An expert team from the Central Water and Power Research Centre, Pune, too visited the area in 2008 to prepare a model structure. It was decided that a new 760-metre-long bridge would be built, 50 mt away from the older one. Accordingly, ` 35.56 crore was sanctioned by the government two years back. However, the work is underway at snail’s pace and only some pillars have been constructed. Meanwhile, every year a wooden bridge is erected by the villagers to facilitate communication for people on both sides of the river. It is, however, removed during the monsoon when water level in the river rises. “Sometimes, the partially-constructed pillars are submerged and it becomes very risky to travel in boats as the pillars are invisible and there is every chance of boats dashing against them,” said Pabitra, a villager of Gudari. Two such accidents have taken place in the past.