A Bridge That Connects 25 Villages To A Major City In Assam Hasn’t Been Repaired Since 1970

North-east India has been somewhat disconnected from the rest of the mainland for a plethora of reasons. With the exception of popular cities like Guwahati and Shillong, not many people are aware of the hardships that the people of North-east go through.

A similar hardship that the people of Assam have been facing for a long time has resurfaced and we are appalled.

‘News Live’ Anchor Nandan Pratim Sharma Bordoloi tweeted about the broken bamboo bridge that connects 25 villages to Jorhat town. The bridge has been awaiting repairs for 48 years now.

Yes, you heard that right.

The bridge that serves as a means of commute has not been given any attention by authorities since 1970. Unfortunately, that’s not all.

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NDTV even published a report on the pathetic condition of the bridge last year on 13 April 2017 but to no avail.

According to the report, the bridge connected Kalkata village, which is 25 kilometers from Dhemaji, Assam and commuters have to bear the rickety and risky ride over the bridge to get there. A local school teacher revealed the negligence of the Government regarding the crisis and said,

“I was young then, in 1975 the PWD built a pucca road here, and then they built three wooden bridges as well, but the massive flood of 1988 washed away those infrastructure, flood continues to happen every year but new village road and bridges are elusive.”

Haven’t we witnessed enough deaths already due to the floods in Assam? It seems the Government is in denial about the situation prevailing in these areas.

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Another youth Kalyan Gogoi also talked about how despite voting in every election and numerous promises, they were forced to take matters into their own hands. He added,

“For 28 years we local villagers have been building bamboo bridges with our own material and manpower. There is no government help, no scheme and no plan to mitigate floods.”

We fail to understand the Government’s inaction even after Assam being hit by life-threatening floods on a yearly basis. Despite it being common knowledge that these areas are adversely affected due to lack of infrastructure, there has been no initiative taken by the authorities to rectify the situation.

Unless it’s a flood or an equally dangerous natural disaster, Assam is rarely given any limelight by mainstream media. Perhaps this is why a looming problem has gone unattended for so long.

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