The two ‘infamous’ bridges — known as “suicide points” — connecting city with Mango Notified Area Committee will get nets by mid-November to foil attempts of ending life at least from the bridge.
The two notified area committees namely Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) which looks after civic needs in non-Tata Steel areas in Jamshedpur and Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC) catering to Mango region of the city, have decided to share the Rs50 lakh project for installing iron net which will provide a shield to the suicide attempts.
As per the plans, MNAC will be installing the safety iron net on the lower portion of the Old Mango bridge, JNAC will be installing the same on the other end of the new Mango bridge. JNAC special officer Dipak Sahay said that tender process for installation of iron safety nets on the new bridge side has been completed and they have even issued work orders to a private agency and are waiting for completion of process from their Mango counterparts.
MNAC special officer Jagadish Yadav said that the tender process has been completed and work order will be issued by this week for installation of iron mesh safety nets at a cost of nearly Rs25 lakh from the lower side of the old bridge.
Welcoming the move, Mahabir Ram an official of Jeevan, a city based suicide prevention centre said, “The situation was becoming serious. We had requested the administration to provide safety nets on the twin bridges over Subernarekha. Once the sides of the bridge are covered with nets, the people will not be able to come to the bridge for committing suicide by jumping into the river”.
The Mango bridge from where people, mostly youngsters tend to jump for committing suicide falls under Sitaramdera and Mango police station areas respectively. On an average two incidents of attempted suicide take place at the Mango bridge every month.
“Within a year ten cases of suicides have been reported of drowning near Mango bridge. Though the figures are not alarming but if immediate steps are not taken, bridges at Mango and Adityapur might turn into suicide points,” said Ram.
City-based doctor UK Srivastava said that limiting the availability of one method of committing suicide is reported to reduce the overall suicide rate. Suicide and injury suicide preventive measures should be considered. According to a study that bridge attracts suicide candidates.