Excelsior Correspondent
REASI, June 11: District Administration Reasi has dedicated 69 bridges to public and various schools which were constructed in a record time of 9 months under a project launched by the District Development Commissioner Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary involving Forest Department and Rural Development Department with public participation. The project was launched in September 2013 with target of 60 bridges in 2013-14 and 40 in 2014-15.
In remote and inaccessible areas students of more than 117 odd schools were deprived of education due to flooding of channels during rainy seasons and also the district witnessed loss of 20-30 lives annually involving such accidents. To address the issue of education deprivation and loss of human and animal lives, a project was designed by the DDC for construction of 100 wooden, hanging and concrete bridges near these schools through public participation and inter-departmental coordination. The project headed by Dr Choudhary has ACD Joginder Singh Rai, DFO Reasi Dr Sayeed Nadeem Hussain and DFO Mahore Rafi Ahmed Khan as other members.
The project teams involved village Panchayats in construction and management of assets. Funds were generated through Corporate Social Reasonability sponsorship by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), and dovetailing of District Innovation Fund operated by DDC, Tribal Sub-Plan, MG-NREGA Convergence, Local Area Development Fund, SDRF, Forest Department sponsorship of timber and community resources. Technical assistance was extended by Public Works Department and Rural Engineering Wing of RDD.
The bridges spanning 30 ft to 60 ft have been constructed over small rivulets and channels which witness immediate flooding in case of even minor rainfall in large catchment area. These bridges will serve 126 schools directly and indirectly and facilitate public of 61 villages.
The mammoth task of construction of 69 bridges was achieved in a short span of time and Panchayats have been actively associated with construction and management of bridges under the project. Out of these 9 bridges have been constructed under Innovation Fund, 5 under CSR, 5 under TSP, 19 under LAD, 7 under MGNREGA and 24 under SDRF.
This is first of its kind project with community participation aimed at addressing at a recurrent problem faced by more than 25000 students in district.
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