School children daily dangerous rendezvous during monsoon in the absence of bridge for past eight years
School children daily dangerous rendezvous during monsoon in the absence of bridge for past eight years
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, July 8
More than a hundred students of Bageshwar district, studying in schools of Nachni area of Pithoragarh district, will have to depend on a trolley to reach school and back home during the current monsoon season as the bridge over flooded Ramganga river which was washed away in 2018 has yet to be rebuilt.
“The students from interior region of Bageshwar district, close to Nachni town of Pithoragarh district, studying from nursery to class 12th in various schools in Nachni, had to travel a distance of more than two kilometers in foot from their respective villages to reach a trolley to cross the flooded river with the help of their parents,” said Sunder Singh Bathyal, a local social worker in Nachni region of Pithoragarh district.
As the heavy trolley has to be pulled manually to move, the parents have to do the job at the site as no PWD worker is deployed for the work. “The trolley has become dangerous as two persons had died and six persons were injured after falling from trolley in last eight years,” said Bathyal.
The villagers said that during winter months, when the water level in the river was minimum, they had built a wooden bridge to facilitate crossing for school children but during monsoon they are depend on trolley that has been installed by PWD provincial division Bageshwar.
Officials of PWD Bageshwar said that a DPR of a 110 meters bridge has been prepared by the department and after it gets sanctioned by the state administration, the bridge will be constructed on priority basis. “We hope the bridge is constructed soon”, said Krishna Piplia, an engineer of provincial division PWD.
