Visakhapatnam: Adivasis Build 100-Metre Wooden Bridge Amid Official Apathy
About 100 Adivasis from eight villages came together to construct the bridge using wood from forest trees.
Visakhapatnam: The age-old tradition of tribal people constructing their own communication system, including roads, culverts, and bridges is still continuing in the Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district due to the official apathy.
In this regard, a video clip of the recently constructed wooden bridge across a stream between Lothugedda and Boyapadu in Chintpalli mandal of ASR district has gone viral in Andhra Pradesh.
After the original bridge constructed years ago got washed away, state government did not bother about replacing it, despite pleas by the tribal people. Lack of bridge meant daily difficulties for the Adivasi children going to their school, patients visiting hospitals, or tribal people taking forest produce for sale to weekly shandies.
This led to about a 100 Adivasi of villages Boyapadu, Vanajajula, Kappala, K. Bennavaram, Karakapalli, Godugumamidi, T. Korukonda, and Mulagondi coming together to themselves construct a bridge.
"We began construction of the bridge on August 8 and completed it on August 15 and celebrated Independence Day,” said Killo Suresh, a farmer of Boyapadu. He maintained that they did not even spend a rupee on construction of the 100-metre-long bridge.
They used wood from the forest trees to build the bridge that can bear the weight of motorcycles and auto rickshaws.
An activist from Chintapalli said another bridge across the same stream had been built by Adivasi last year at T. Korukonda. It is still strong and is withstanding vagaries of nature. He regretted that a culvert built over a stream at Chinna Gangavaram in Darakonda panchayat of G.K. Veedhi mandal got washed away due to heavy rains on Saturday.
The original bridge built by the Panchayat Raj department got washed away in 2024.
Convener of AP Tribal JAC Rama Rao Dora highlighted the continuing infrastructure deficit in the agency areas despite repeated government assurances on improving road connectivity.
Government records, however, reveal several bridge and culvert projects sanctioned for ASR district, including a bridge between Jajigonda and Bodidevulu in Paderu, a low-level causeway between Chamagedda and Nadimveedhi, and a four-vent slab culvert between Akuru and Badigunta.
A more recent example is the ₹1.89-crore bridge on the Ganugurolu-Bangarubudi road in G. Madugula mandal.
