Village is the heart of every community and maintaining connectivity with the outside world demands some type of development in order to commute, pass through, and engage in daily activities. As the government encourages cities to develop to their maximum potential, small villages struggle to meet basic needs such as building a bridge for safe mobility.
After fifteen years of requesting the government officials to build a bridge in Mogra, people in Guthigar village of Sullia taluk in Mangaluru constructed their own bridge. The old wooden bridge was used by about 50 students and other people from the village to get to the other side of the river. When the river overflowed during the monsoon, students’ and people’s mobility on the temporary bridge became a herculean and dangerous task.
Speaking to News Karnataka Mahesh Puchhappady, an agriculturist and journalist from the village told that, “There are primary government schools, primary health care centres, and an anganwadi within the limits. We have been appealing to the elected government officials to build a bridge in Mogra since 2006. No decisions were made in this regard.”
He went on to say that when elections come, political representatives give hope and promise to build a bridge. Every promise, however, has been unfulfilled. “When people came to ask for votes last December, we told them that we need a bridge or we would move forward with protests. As there was no response, I along with the support of like-minded youth, few corporate companies and villagers decided in a meeting to build a steel footbridge named ‘Grama Setu.’
He further explained the meaning of the name; Grama means local and Setu means bridge so together it means local people’s bridge.
The villagers on June 5, approached Patanjali Bharadwaj, the son of Padmashri awardee Girish Bharadwaj, who is known for building several hanging bridges in rural and remote places around the country. He was in charge of the construction and supervision of Grama Setu.
An estimate of 1.3 lakh was required for the construction. “With the collective effort of villagers, corporate companies and donations from locals and crowd-funding, we were able to initiate the work. Right To Live, an NGO organisation too helped us. Even during the construction, the government did not assist us in any way. Despite this, we were able to construct a steel footbridge with 19.2 metre length and 1.2 metre width in three weeks,” said Puchhappady.
The villagers are overjoyed at the fulfilment of their year-long-standing dream. They still need a concrete bridge and now it is the government’s responsibility to do the same. Puchchapady concluded by saying that the steel footbridge is almost finished, with only one more day of concrete work remaining. It will be made open to all villagers in two days.
