Residents of this village in Jharkhand built their own bridge

RANCHI:  What the government could not do for years, 200 villagers of this remote village in Jharkhand achieved in two days. The residents of Bogasadam village in Chatra district have built a 200-feet long bridge across a river using locally-available material like bamboo, wood, nut-volts, tyres, nails and ropes. The bridge was constructed through shramdaan (voluntary contribution involving physical effort) by about 200 villagers.

The local residents say that the village turns into an island during the rainy season, hampering visits to fields, grazing of cattle and even children’s school attendance. “There was no problem 2-3 years back as we could cross the river easily even during monsoon because the water level used to be low. But ever since two check dams were constructed on the river on both ends of the village, the water level has increased significantly, creating a problem for us to cross over for day-to-day activities,” Sandeep Kumar Pathak, a teacher, said, adding that most of the paddy fields are located on the other side of the river. 

“The enormity of the condition stared us in the face when many cattle got drowned in the river,” Pathak added. The villagers decided to hold a meeting to find solutions, and that’s when some labourers recalled that they had seen such bridges in other states.

“Most of the things used for building the bridge were already available in abundance, and only ropes, nuts-bolts and nails were bought, for which we pooled in money,” another villager, Somnath Mahto, said. The entire exercise cost them Rs 4,000-5,000.

Now, the villagers don’t have to travel 5km to the main road to reach the bridge for crossing the river. The distance of 5 km has been reduced to merely half km after the bamboo bridge was erected, village head Kanchan Devi said.

“The state government and public representatives paid no heed to our agony. Finally, we decided to take things into our hands,” Kanchan Devi added, recalling that a similar attempt was made a month ago, but the wood and bamboo got washed away in the heavy current. 

“The village youth made another attempt and erected the bridge in merely two days,” she beamed.