Contractors wary,Orissa considers pontoon bridges in Maoist hotbed

With civil contractors shying away from building a bridge over Saberi river in the Maoist hotbed of Motu in south Orissas Malkangiri district....

With civil contractors shying away from building a bridge over Saberi river in the Maoist hotbed of Motu in south Orissas Malkangiri district,the local administration has now suggested building pontoon bridges temporary floating structures usually used by the military to connect the place with the rest of the state and neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

The river flowing between Chhattisgarh and Orissa is the physical barrier that separates Motu and several parts of southern Orissa and Chhattisgarh. With no access to the area due to the lack of a permanent bridge,Motu still remains underdeveloped and infested with Maoists.

Though the Orissa government first floated a tender for building a 250-metre bridge over Saberi in 1999,not a single contractor has come forward fearing Maoist reprisal. Due to its geographical proximity with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and its location in the Dandakaranya region,Malkangiri has been a haven for Maoist leaders for over a decade.

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Malkangiri District Collector N B Jawale said after 1999,we re-floated the tender 11 times,but still there is no response. Contractors were apprehensive of attacks, he added. Also,the Maoists are not letting any construction company to construct bridges over Gurupriya river in Chitrakonda area and Sileru river near Motu. Sileru river flows along Andhra Pradesh and Motu border. Construction major Gammon India Limited opted out of the Gurupriya bridge project following Maoist attacks.

The administration wants to see if the pontoon bridge model works well for crossing Saberi and then apply the same over Gurupriya as 127 villages in Chitrakonda remain cut off from the mainland.

Jawale said there is no point in waiting to build a permanent bridge and that is why he proposed a pontoon bridge to Home Secretary Aditya Padhi. He added that a pontoon bridge will also cost a fraction of a permanent bridge.

When the tender was first floated in 1999,the original cost of the bridge was Rs 7 crore. The minimum cost estimate is Rs 27 crore now. A pontoon bridge can be built for Rs 1-2 crore.

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With the government now planning an offensive against Maoists in Orissa,Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh,a bridge over the Saberi is a necessity for the police forces from Chhattisgarh and Orissa to move into each others territory. A bridge over the river is very essential. If the pontoon bridge gets blown up,the floating cylinders can easily be replaced and within very short span, Jawale added.

The collector said the bridge can be built either by the defence engineers or state rural development department.

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