16 Kapurthala villages to get metal bridge today

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, December 22

Over 6,000 residents of as many as 16 Mand villages that had remained separated from the mainland of Sultanpur Lodhi as they fell between two streams of the Beas will get some relief from tomorrow as MLA Navtej Cheema will inaugurate a metal bridge here.

The bridge has been built at a cost of Rs 15 crore. The residents of island villages, including Baupur Jadid, Baupur Kadim, Sangra, Mand Mubarakpur, Rampur Guara, Bhaini Kadar Baksh, Mand Sangra, Kishanpur Gatka, Muhamdabad, Bhaini Bahadur, Mand Dhunda, Mand Bhim Jadid and Alamkhanwala, were earlier connected only through a pontoon bridge, which was a temporary inflatable structure, set up by the PWD on the river that is about 400 ft wide. This bridge too had to be removed during the monsoon, leaving people with the option to use boats for going to school or hospital. Owing to poor connectivity, the area had remained backward. There are no hospitals or dispensaries here. In all these years, many women had lost their lives at childbirth. Many elderly and ailing patients died on the way. Most villagers here are school dropouts, as it was not easy for them to wait for a boat every morning to reach the other side.

Elated at the opening of the new bridge, Sarwan Singh from Baupur village said, “Thankfully, our sons will no longer stay unmarried. No one was ready to marry their daughters to our sons due to lack of connectivity.”

The villages in the 16 sq km riverine area of Mand have a dispersed settlement, with many of them having less than 200 inhabitants. As per official data, nearly 3,000 acres are cultivable here. In 2011, then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had laid the foundation stone for setting up a permanent bridge, but it was not started. The work finally began in December, 2018, just ahead of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak, when Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh laid the stone here.

Work began in 2018

• In 2011, the then CM, Parkash Singh Badal, had laid the foundation stone for setting up a permanent bridge, but the work did not start
• The work began in December, 2018, ahead of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak, when CM Capt Amarinder Singh laid the stone