It has been nearly a month since a portion of the bridge at Thathar in Bantalab collapsed, and there has been no response from the authorities. For the Public Works Department and the District Administration, this may well be just another entry in a long register of pending works. For the thousands of men, women and children living in Raipur, Kot Bhalwal, Seri, Gharota, Mathwar and surrounding villages, however, it is a waking nightmare – one that recurs every single day in the 21st century. The human cost of this institutional inertia is staggering in its breadth. The schoolchild who must navigate a treacherous makeshift passage strewn with loose gravel and large stones every morning, only to repeat the ordeal in the evening; the college student who arrives late, exhausted, having added miles to their daily journey; the Government employee who reaches their office delayed, burning precious fuel on a circuitous alternate route – at a time when the nation’s leadership routinely exhorts citizens to conserve petrol and diesel.
The so-called alternate route created by filling a portion of the seasonal nallah is, by any honest assessment, no route at all. Vehicles – particularly smaller cars and two-wheelers – frequently get stranded on it. The Administration, having arranged this fig leaf of a solution, appears to have retreated into hibernation, congratulating itself on a problem resolved whilst the problem festers. Amongst the worst sufferers are those who have no choice in the matter. The sick and the elderly, dependent on ambulances and emergency vehicles, find their access to timely medical care severely compromised. The shopkeeper has seen footfall and trade dwindle. The daily wage worker whose earnings are diminished by the additional transport costs imposed upon them.
The monsoon season is fast approaching. When the rains arrive in their customary fury, the seasonal nallah over which this flimsy passage has been laid will swell and surge, and the last semblance of connectivity will be washed away entirely. At that point, entire villages will stand effectively cut off. The Government must treat this not as a departmental matter proceeding at a bureaucratic pace, but as an emergency affecting the daily lives and livelihoods of thousands. Immediate improvement of the temporary passage is non-negotiable. Expedited construction of the new bridge must follow. A project of this nature, in a populated area with no alternative connectivity, must be accorded priority status.
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