Indrayani river bridge collapse | Bridge ‘unfit for travel’, residents say tourists ignore warning board

Prateek Pawar from Somatane village, located 5 km away, told The Indian Express, at the site of the accident, “A huge number of tourists are here on the weekend. The board is ignored by everybody. On weekends, there is a queue to get on the bridge from both sides. The sides of the road leading up to the bridge are filled with parked vehicles, showing how many people turn up here. This is a very famous selfie spot. They ignore the warning posted by the sarpanch.”

A local resident listening in to the conversation quipped in, “People don’t even listen to the police, what will they listen to the sarpanch?”

“Instead of just installing a warning board, why was the bridge not completely shut down for traffic?,” the resident asked.

Locals say that the bridge was the only convenient route for villagers, farmers, and milk sellers from villages on both sides to cross the river.
Now that the bridge has collapsed, villagers will have to take a 13-km detour to reach the other end of the bridge.

The breadth of the bridge allows a single two-wheeler to pass through it at a time. This means that while a two-wheeler enters the bridge from one side, vehicles on the other side have to wait for it to pass before getting on it.

Balasaheb Shelar from neighbouring village Shelarwadi said, “A few people die at this location every year. They slip either while taking selfies or making videos of the water after getting down in the riverbed.”

He explains how attempts to close down the bridge in the past have been unsuccessful, “The authorities had installed a wooden barrier two years ago but people broke it down. People just don’t listen to the government or even the police. There is a board installed at the beginning of the bridge as well as a couple of boards around the area but they are completely ignored.”

Anil Shelar, from the same village, said that just constructing a new bridge beside the old bridge was not enough. The old bridge needs to be demolished.

“People will keep using the old bridge even if a new bridge is constructed. We need to demolish the old bridge and build a new one in its place,” Shelar said.