Silvester Dsouza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (DV)

Kundapur, Aug 29: Elections come and go and so governments. Similar is the case with the politicians. In our country politicians are real ‘rarity’ because they are seen ‘live’ only once in 5 years. Cometh the elections, cometh the politicians. They could and would be found even in the remotest areas, darkest gullies and even in the desert just a fortnight before the elections. They take solemn oath to resolve all the problems of all the people, empower everyone, drive away all social malice. However, once the elections are over, life comes back to normalcy and ‘sanity’ prevails.

Problems surface again but politicians never surface for the next 5 years.
This is what could be said about the plight of Angalli bridge near here. Several elections have gone by and yet Angalli bridge remains the same, tattered and shattered, waiting to gobble up vehicles and passers by each day. People who promised that it will be repaired have never turned up again.

This Angalli bridge is the main connection to Basroor from Angalli.  It takes 12 km to reach Basroor from Shastri circle through Moorkai. However if Angalli bridge is used, the distance is reduced to mere 8 kilometres. However heavy vehicles cannot run on Angalli bridge in its present condition and hence senior citizens, students of Angalli need to walk up to the town to catch a bus or should walk on this road. The other option is to hire private vehicles. Neither of these is feasible and this has been a constant problem for the locals.

What is this problem?

A double road bridge was sanctioned a few years ago and even the work had begun. However the contractor stopped the work in between since he was not adequately paid. Thereafter nothing has moved and no one has taken interest to complete the work and the problem persists.

Traffic bottleneck:

Though only the light vehicles such as cars, rickshaws and two-wheelers move on this road, traffic problem is a daily phenomenon here. Commuters from Basroor to Tallur use this road. Since only one vehicle can pass at a time on this road, traffic bottlenecks during the rush hours of morning and evening are common. One can also see people getting embroiled in quarrels almost everyday owing to the traffic snarls
If the bridge work is completed, this would also boost commerce between Angalli and Basroor. Though tenders have been invited thrice, none of the contractors are willing to take up the work. For a broad and double-track road over the bridge, the present bridge needs to be demolished. Further the contractors also fear that their fate could be just like the earlier one who had to abandon the work due to shortage of funds.
Assurance

Now the people of the vicinity people are fuming against the politicians. Though almost all the parties and its leaders take up the issue during every election, Angalli bridge still remains an ‘election issue’. None of the parties or the leaders is willing to fulfil their promises. Angalli Bridge is remains a distant dream.