Anantnag: Putting people living in dozens of villages on either side of it to severe inconvenience, the Sadoora Bridge on the outskirts of Anantnag town is yet to be reconstructed after it was damaged in the devastating floods of September 2014.
The fact that both government and the locals have spent hefty amounts on constructing one diversion after another on the bridge has not sufficed, thus far. The diversions have been regularly washed away in times of heavy rains and subsequent gushing waters of the Nallah Brengi, over which the bridge once stood.
The bridge was an important link in the area as it connected more than half a dozen villages to the only railway station in the area: the Sadoora railway station. Besides, it connected many villages, on the other side, to main town Anantnag.
Sources in the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department told Kashmir Reader that a diversion was constructed in 2015, some months after the floods washed away the bridge.
“The diversion was however washed away as well in the same year,” the sources said, adding that since then three more diversions were constructed but all were washed away, forcing the locals to take longer routes to reach their destinations.
“Earlier the drive to Anantnag used to be less than 4 kilometers but now in the absence of the bridge it is more than 10 kilometers,” the locals told Kashmir Reader, adding that people going in the other direction have to often walk through the water to reach their destination.
Even some local transporters, a couple of years ago, got together and raised money for the construction of a diversion. “That was washed away as well,” the locals said.
The locals lamented that while almost all the bridges damaged in 2014 have been reconstructed or work was on progress on them, this bridge was being neglected for reasons better known to the authorities.
“We have been moving from one official to another with the request to get this bridge constructed at the earliest, but no one seems to be listening to our genuine demand,” the locals that Kashmir Reader talked to said.
The Executive Engineer of R&B department for Qazigund division, Basharat Jaleel, told Kashmir Reader that a design of the bridge has been sent to the World Bank for approval.
“We had approached the World Bank for funding of the bridge. A design and a detailed project report was sought, which has been submitted. The work will start soon after we receive a nod from the World Bank,” Jaleel said.
The locals, however, said that they had been listening to the “World Bank approval” story for over a year now. “We wonder if things at the World Bank take this long to materialise,” they said.

Suhail A Shah