Kuliana: As the monsoon arrives, it rains miseries for some villages on the banks of river Budhabalanga in Patihinsa and Gendapokhari panchayats under this block in Mayurbhanj district.
People have nightmarish experience when they fail to venture out of the villages due to bad road condition. As the river is in spate, thousands of people virtually remain cut off from the rest of the world till floodwaters recede.
Under these circumstances, the only means of communication to go across the river is a rickety bamboo bridge.
“To reach the block office, tehsil office, police station and other offices, we have to cross the river on that bridge, which is in a precarious condition,” lamented some locals.
People had laid this bamboo bridge across the river with their own efforts. It has provided much-needed commuting facility for people, albeit with its share of risks.
Locals said the people of these two panchayats have long been demanding a bridge across the river, but no step is being taken to alleviate their problems.
The state government took note of the problem and had initiated efforts for a bridge construction in 2011.
Hopes for communication brightened for the locals when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for a bridge project across the river so as to provide connectivity to Kuliana-Patihinsa road with Sarpanga RD road.
Sadly, even six years after this, the bridge work has not been completed as yet, lamented locals.
They are not sure when the work will be completed and their aspiration will be fulfilled even as the deadline for the project has ended along ago.
Locals said there is always risk in crossing the rickety bridge. “None is sure what will happen the next moment,” they rued.
They urged the administration to make efforts for early completion of the project and relive the people of their perennial miseries. PNN
