Karnataka   

They court danger every day

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

unsafe: A motorcyclist stands on the wall to make way for a bullock cart on the narrow metre-gauge railway bridge that connects several villages to Srirangapatna.

SRIRANGAPATNA: People of 15 villages adjoining Ramapura use an abandoned and dilapidated metre-gauge railway bridge built across the Cauvery to commute to Srirangapatna despite the danger and lack of safety measures.

More than 2,000 people use the bridge daily apart from the many schoolchildren. The bridge does not have steel girders or railings and pedestrians are forced to stand on the narrow walls to make way for vehicles.

The bridge was abandoned following the conversion of the Mysore-Bangalore metre-gauge track to broad gauge in 1992. However, the local people prefer to walk or drive across the bridge as it saves time and helps them cut down on fuel.

Though the railway authorities had put up a board cautioning people against using the bridge, the board disappeared within a few days, according to a government official.

A railway official pointed out that the bridge was more than 100 years old and there were complaints during the metre-gauge days that it was weak and had to be repaired. “But since the broad gauge project was launched around the same time, the metre-gauge bridge was abandoned,” he said.

While there is a road connecting Ramapura and surrounding villages to Srirangapatna, local people say the distance is too long. The distance to Srirangapatna is reduced by four km if one walks across the bridge, they add.

Yogesha, a farmer from Ramapura, told The Hindu : “Adults can somehow manage but the people of the village are concerned about schoolchildren as they may fall from the bridge.” He pointed out that two people had lost their lives a few years ago when they fell from the bridge while making way for a vehicle.

The bridge is hardly a few feet in width and there is no space for vehicles to move on both sides. Farmers from Byadathimmana Koppal, Kyatahalli, Doddegowdana Koppal, Chaluvarayaswamy Koppal and surrounding villages also use the bridge to transport sugarcane and other items to the local shandy.

The people of the region had demanded that the bridge be repaired and safety measures taken. Now that the track doubling work between Mysore and Bangalore is in progress necessitating the construction of another bridge, the local people have demanded a rail-cum-road bridge. “The least that the Government can do is ensure that the new bridge is broad enough to facilitate the movement of pedestrians and vehicles from Ramapura to Srirangapatna,” Mr. Yogesh said.

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