Kendrapara/Pattamundai: Thousands of people in Singhagaon panchayat under Pattamundai block of Kendrapara district have been facing commuting woes in the absence of a bridge across Kantia creek. A bridge on the river is their long pending demand. Their dream of a bridge is set to be realised soon as the state government has allocated Rs 47.09 crore for the Krushnadaspur Singhagaon bridge project. This development has brought cheers to the people of the riparian villages. The Rural Development department has approved the outlay.
Notably, Kantia creek is part of the National Waterway-5 (NW-5) project under Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). Pramesh Mallick, a resident of Singhagaon, said, “Our village is 26 km away from Pattamundai town. The villagers cannot access 102 ambulance service because of the creek. In emergency cases, patients and pregnant women are carried on cots across the creek to Andara primary health centre (PHC) which is 10 km away or 20 km away to Aul community health centre (CHC).” He further added that in case of fire mishaps, fire tenders fail to reach Singhagaon, Rauliadhia and Krushnadaspur villages.
Moreover, students of the three villages face hardship in wading across the creek to reach Brahmani College. For about eight months in a year, people of these villages have to face severe commuting problems. During monsoon, the Kantia river gets infested with crocodiles. People fear to venture into it in order to go out for any emergency. The bridge will pave way for smooth communication for all. He added that for lack of road connectivity, the three villages are plagued by absence of basic facilities. Local resident Ganesh Chandra Samal blamed the lack of coordination between the state and Central governments for the inordinate delay in commencing the bridge project.
The National Waterway-5 was a hurdle in its way to becoming reality. In 2008, the NW-5 with a length of 623 km under Inland Waterways Authority of India got the project approval. 532 km length of the NW-5 is in Odisha and the rest 91 km in West Bengal. Funds have been sanctioned for the NW-5 from Brahmani River (Talcher) to Dhamnagar in the first phase. As Kantia creek is part of the NW5, bridgework had been halted, Samal added. Former sarpanch Nirmal Chandra Jena said that the perennial commuting woes will come to an end after completion of the bridge and it will facilitate communication to various parts of Kendrapara and Jajpur districts. In 2008, the project faced land hurdle and the issue was sorted out in 2012 with help of some local leaders.
However, the project failed to take off, leading to several rounds of protests from the people of the panchayat in front of the Collectorate. ADM Pitambar Samal said that the land hurdle which had cropped up in the initial stage has been settled. As NW-5 passes through the area, the bridge work also got delayed. However, the district administration has been making sustained efforts to hasten construction of the bridge, he added.