Karimnagar: Eight months overdue, work on an important bridge linking Maharashtra and Telangana, continues at snail’s pace. Meanwhile accidents happen in the shadow of the delay.
The high level bridge across the Godavari river on the outskirts of Metpalli village in Mahadevapur mandal and Sironcha of Maharashtra was supposed to be completed in June 2015. With its completion still awaited, the people from the two states are forced to cross the river in boats, a risky method of transport given the potential for capsize. Accidents have happened, including one recent fatality. Metpalli is located near the temple town of Kaleshwaram.
In order to ease hurdles involved in crossing the river to reach Telangana, the Maharashtra government had decided to build the 1.62 km bridge over the Godavari at an estimated cost of '241.7 crore in 2011.
Hyderabad-based Man-tena Infratech Private Limited began executing the project in December 2012. Deadline for completing the works was June, 2015. It has been over eight months since the deadline went by.
The inter-state bridge has not been completed yet, thanks to lethargic progress and hurdles in acquiring lands for erecting some of the pillars.
It is learnt that some farmers of Mettupalli village of Mahadevapur mandal raised objections against using their land for laying the approach road as their children were not provided with government jobs as promised at the time of land acquisition.
Speaking to this newspaper, an employee of the executing agency said, “Over 85 per cent of the work has been completed. However, three more pillars need to be erected and land has to be acquired for the approach road between the bridge and the Kaleshwaram-Maha-devapur stretch towards Telangana. The construction of the bridge will be over by the end of May, 2016.”
When the bridge is commissioned, not only will the people of Maharashtra and Telangana benefit, the distance between Hyderabad and Raipur in Chhattisgarh will also drastically be reduced.
On November 6, 2014, Maharashtra governor Ch.Vidyasagar Rao inspected the works and told the agency to expedite the construction.
