Malkangiri: The much-awaited Gurupriya Bridge on the Gurupriya river near Chitrakonda in this district has been declared functional Tuesday. It will opened for the public after inauguration at the hands of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The bridge will connect 151 villages across the Balimela reservoir with the mainland of Malkangiri.
Officials said the chief minister would inaugurate the 910-metre-long bridge in June. Work on the approach road to the bridge was currently progressing. Officials held a puja Tuesday to mark the start of functioning of the bridge.
Several villages in the region had come under water and 151 villages were cut-off from the mainland after commencement of the Balimela Hydroelectric Project in the 1960s. In 1970, the state government provided motorboat services that gave access to these villages.
Keeping the difficulties of the residents in mind, former chief minister JB Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the bridge in 1982. Later, Naveen Patnaik too laid a stone in 2000. The estimated cost of the bridge was Rs 172.58crore.
As of now, motorboats ferry villagers along the 68km waterway during daytime. Currently, eight boats have been engaged for the government-run water service, but only four are functional, sources said.
The bridge will now be the lifeline for more than 20,000 inhabitants of these cut-off villages, as people have been relying on the ferry boats to visit Chitrakonda or Malkangiri for medical, marketing and other essential errands.
The bridge will also help the security personnel take on the left wing extremists in the cut-off region in more effective ways.
