Now for 20 days, Pawan Singh is following a new and trusted route while taking his three children to school. Each day, they walk four kilometers from the “broken bridge”, then a mud road down the banks of the Banai River. From here, he hoists a child on his shoulder, wakes up through the river, drops the child on the other side, and then comes back to others.
Tired, he returns home, only to repeat the process after hours when it is time to bring them home.
“It has become a daily battle,” Singh, a resident of Agrabury in Khunti district, told the Indian Express. “I cross the river 12 times a day.”
Jharkhand has been watching heavy rains in the last one month, watching its best June on June 11 in 11 years. The state saw the rain of 348.9 mm – 84 percent more than the monthly average of 189.5 mm.
Singh is not just going to cross the river in this way. For the last 20 days, many residents living around the river have followed a uniform routine, when a bridge divided the middle to the right after heavy rains, leading to a gap of 25 feet.
The bridge was part of the National Highway -75, which connected Junti from Simdega and further to Odisha. The morning incident on the morning of 19 June left hundreds of trapped on both sides, with continuous rain and swollen river with increasing the condition and making crossings fatal.
“The water now grows on our chest, but we have no choice.” “The alternative route is 15 kilometers through the Chaatkanda and Kunjla Mod. This is not just possible.”
The construction of the bridge was at an estimated cost of Rs 1.25 crore in 2007 due to heavy rains, divided into two. This also drowned a part of the road, making it dangerous.
Jharkhand has been watching heavy rains in the last one month, watching its best June on June 11 in 11 years. The state saw the rain of 348.9 mm – 84 percent more than the monthly average of 189.5 mm.
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The construction of the bridge was at an estimated cost of Rs 1.25 crore in 2007 due to heavy rains, divided into two. This also drowned a part of the road, making it dangerous.
As a result of collapse, traffic is diverted via another route, NH -143. But for the villagers, this change comes at a standing price. For one thing, it means spending more on transport.
“Earlier, the school auto used to charge Rs 500 per month, but now it is Rs 1,000. Not everyone can do so,” says another parent, Dasharatha Maho.
As a result of collapse, traffic is diverted via another route, NH -143. But for the villagers, this change comes at a standing price. For one thing, it means spending more on transport.
For the second, the alternative passage is often used by heavy vehicles, making it more dangerous for pedestrians.
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With the bridge being divided into half, no school buses fall into the area, which forces students of nearby Rhodo, Sugi, Angerbury, Bichana, Saridkel, Japud, Jaltanda, and Gamhaim villages to take more dangerous routes.
“We get out of the house at 6:30 am and reach the school about 4 km around 7:30 am. But the water level is high and the streams are strong, we are forced to adopt a long way. It is 30 kilometers and down,” Maho, who takes children to go to school to go to school, says.
The locals initially came with a separate solution: they had a bamboo staplador from the stuck part of the road on the other side of the bridge. A video that went viral immediately after collapse, some old school children were shown climbing the ladder, which was dangerously falter under their weight.
“We used it to take our children on our shoulders and climb up,” Maho says. “Later, the police and the district administration ordered it to be removed, saying that it was very risky. But is the situation not even more dangerous?”
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Local residents claim that they have approached the administration several times. In her part, Khunti Deputy Commissioner R Ronita says that the Pelol Bridge collapsed due to “excessive rainfall”.
She says, “Khati received more than 360 mm of rain in just three days – above the average of the district. The structure was divided between the middle, which made it unsafe for movement … the tender process for repair is going on, and the work is expected to start soon,” she says.
“It is not a national highway, but is part of the State Highway -3 (SH -3). Therefore, its construction and maintenance belongs to the Jharkhand Government’s Road Construction Department (RCD), especially under PWD Khunti Division,” Mukand Atarde, Project Director of National Highway Authority, National Highway Authority of India, Jharkhand, Indian Authority, Jharkhand, Indian Express.
PWD Division officials did not respond to calls and messages seeking comments.
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