People use makeshift connectivity in Thayan Kalaroose in absence of concrete bridge

Kupwara, May 30: Due to non-availability of a concrete bridge the residents of Thayan B in Kalaroose area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district are forced to use a makeshift bridge to cross Moori Nallah and reach to their respective destinations.

The Rural Development Department in 2018 had approved a bridge for the area, following which work was started but then it was left halfway due to reasons best known to the authorities.

Only a few abutments of the bridge have been constructed all through these years leaving the locals anguished. “We have now lost the hope of seeing this bridge completed because the concerned department seems insensitive towards our hardships which we face on a daily basis,” Altaf Ahmad, a local told Greater Kashmir.

He said that the minor students and women happen to be the worst hit due to lack of bridge. “Amid high water level in the Moori Nallah, students of the area are unable to cross it which ultimately tells upon their studies,” he added. “Since our school happens to be on the other side of Moori Nallah so whenever water level increases in it, we prefer staying back at home. We are unable to understand why authorities were watching our miseries as mute spectators and doing nothing with regard to completing the remaining construction work of this bridge,” said a student of the area. Even locals are aghast over inordinate delay in completion of the bridge. They said that hundreds of households were dependent on this bridge. “Whenever any medical emergency arises in the area, we have to carry patients on shoulders and reach the main road, from where we board vehicles to proceed further,” said Arif, a local youth.

The residents said that the bridge once completed will ease out the hardships of students and locals who have been suffering badly. The residents have sought immediate intervention of Member Legislative Assembly (MLA) Kupwara Mir Fayaz in this regard, so that the bridge is constructed and their hardships may end.