Risking life and limb!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATATI, Jan 10: The picture of the wooden bridge above speaks volumes of the problem that afflicts people who have to use it, risking life and limb. This has been a long-drawn-out problem, but it is all water under the bridge now.

The bridge is on the Gopith gar Road that leads people residing in the area to Dr. BK Kakati Road at Sarabbati in the city. The area has many an office, including the Office of the Labour Commissioner and that of Axom Seva Samiti. This road is used by office-goers, school and college going students and others belonging to diverse walks of life. Despite its backwardness, the area teems with life.

There are few in the area who can say when this rickety structure – the bridge – was constructed. They only say that this bridge was constructed long back, and that they have not ever seen its reconstruction. They, however, say that sometimes the bridge is repaired. The renovation is just the replacement of its one or two wooden battens with new ones – purely a cosmetic exercise!

Many in the area view that the cosmetic touch given to the bridge is the reason behind the authority concerned not replacing it with a new one or a concrete structure. They view the bridge as a cash cow that keeps the department concerned to show expenditure from time to time, just by replacing one or two battens.  

Many people sustained injuries while crossing the bridge. Even then, they have no way out but to use the ramshackle structure as they have no altertive road to use.

The local people say that former MLA Robin Bordoloi failed to do anything worthwhile to replace the bridge with a new one even as the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress Government did promise to concretize all wooden bridges in the State after a major road accident.

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