Vadodara: A wooden bridge that was supposed to facilitate good transport for the residents of the city has become a problem for many. Not exactly in a developed condition, this wooden bridge connecting Krishnanagar to Nagarwala on the bank of River Vishvamitri in the Vadodara metropolis is posing risk to the commuters who use it every day.
The ETV Bharat team, on reaching here, learned that the bridge is actually built by the residents in the vicinity as a last resort when no administrative authority paid any heed to the lack of transport facilities here. The locals have also invested their personal funds in the building of this bridge which is, as they claim, more than 50 years old and was built in the year 1972. Around 10 elections have gone by since these people are using this bridge, but no authority has cared enough to make anything better for the people here.
Around 200 people live in the vicinity of this area and use the bridge every day. Even young children risk their lives to reach the city through this bridge. Despite being one of the eight metro cities in the country, such a situation puts a huge question mark on the development authorities here.
The locals here told the ETV Bharat that they have voiced their needs for better commutation facilities, especially as a replacement to the said wooden bridge, several times in the past but to no avail. All the leaders and politicians in the area assured some action on the matter but did nothing once the elections were over.
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One of the locals Sanjay said that apart from the danger of falling off the bridge or of the bridge collapsing altogether, the river below the bridge also has a lot of crocodiles which further puts the life of the people using the bridge in grave danger. Several people and their cattle have also suffered from snake bites in the past while crossing the bridge at night. In fact, the bridge has also collapsed a couple of times before though nobody has died in the incidents so far.
Vinod, who has grown up in the area said, "I have been seeing the bridge since childhood. There has to be some way to cross the river and this bridge built by the villagers have existed forever. Despite several requests, no one has taken any notice of our problems, and so we build and rebuild it every time it collapses." Another local Meena said that passing through the bridge is life-threatening. "There is a constant fear of falling into the water. Taking children is a grave risk. There are no street lights so the bridge is almost inaccessible at night. There are crocodiles and other reptiles around that make it even more dangerous."
Vadodara Municipal Corporation Standing Committee Chairman Dr. Hitendra Patel, putting up his own argument on the matter, said that people living in such residential areas do not need to live there. "For people who have their homes in such risky areas, there is an incentive to allot houses under the EWS housing scheme by the government. But these people are used to staying there and they do not accept the facilities," he said. "Even the government and the corporation authorities are worried about such families. Unfortunately, there is no cooperation from these families."
Giving reasons for no concrete road built here in the past several decades, Patel said that the area is not geographically fit for construction. "We have tried to find a rational solution to the problem in the past but there is just no solution," he said.
