The locals of Sartha village and its surroundings led by one Prabhat Kumar Mohanty have become an example for others for their contribution towards construction of an approach road.
Mohanty has agreed to part with a patch of land, belonging to him, that was falling on the path of the construction of the approach road for Panchupada bridge. Since, there was a dispute between Mohanty, an inherited property owned by him, and the Government over land, the fate of a bridge was hanging on fire for more than two years.
While Mohanty agreed to part with the land, the villagers offered ‘Shramdan’ for leveling the earth portion.
“A patch of land in the line of approach road fell under Mohanty’s ownership and he was reluctant to part with it.
Due to the bottleneck, the main bridge construction works although completed couldn’t not be opened as there was no approach road at Panchupada end,” said Assistant Engineer, Works, Radhakrushna Behera.
“Since he has agreed the constraint is eliminated. The villagers too extended a whole hearted support for leveling the ground for left out portion, about 140 metres of the approach road,” he informed.
“The land under my ownership was a part of our joint property. It is around 1.5 acres land. I have decided to allow the construction of approach road on the land for common good,” said Mohanty.
The bridge, 145 metres long, has missed the deadline, which was February last year,2016.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the bridge for the second time in February, 2014, before the last general elections. The current project cost was estimated around Rs 21 crore. It was taken up by the State Government with the assistance of Nabard and executed by a private company.
In fact, Initially the much-hyped bridge’s (Panchupada bridge) foundation stone was laid by former Chief Minister JB Pattnaik on December,1988. In the first attempt, in 1988, the bridge work began with an initial estimation of Rs 1.76 crore.After a part of its construction of two pillars, irregularities of around Rs 76 lakh were alleged. The project came under the scanner of the Vigilance and the work was stalled and abandoned altogether.
And it couldn’t be completed even after a lapse of 25 years. For the second occasion, the foundation stone for the bridge was laid here by CM Patnaik in 2014.
At least one lakh rural population will be benefited as they will have a direct connection to headquarters town, besides having a distance reduction for about 40 km.