The decades-old dream of a bridge between Tangeda village in Guntur district and Mattampally village in Nalgonda district appears to be materialised soon as the tenders for the construction of the 840-metre bridge have been finalised, according to the Roads and Buildings engineering wing officials in Nalgonda.
The villagers used to use boats to cross Krishna river and human losses due to boat capsize were a common scenario then. “As many as 85 people died in a massive boat capsize in 1962 and 10 more people died in a similar incident in 1989,” former Peddaveedu Sarpanch Samala Shiva Reddy told The Hindu. One or two fatalities in boat mishap were a regular phenomenon till a few year ago. In 2009, the district administration introduced a massive raft for ferry people and big vehicles, Mr. Reddy said. On any day, at least 1,000 people cross the river on raft and the number goes up in festive occasion. We, along with the local leaders irrespective of political affiliation, have been knocking the doors of people’s representatives from the district, but every plea fell on the deaf ears,” Mr. Reddy lamented, adding that they recently approached Housing Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, who had taken the initiative to get the bridge sanctioned. The Minister also ensured the issuing of tenders for the works which were bagged by the Narasimha and Sons. It is also learnt that the bridge would be constructed upstream Pulichithala and the works are likely to commence in January. If everything goes well, the project would be completed in 2016. The 840-metre bridge will have a 600-metre approach road from Guntur side and 200-metre one from Nalgonda side.
Nalgonda R&B Superintendent Engineer M. Lingaiah said Engineer-in-Chief Gangdhar also had visited the place before the tenders were finalised. With the bridge coming up, the distance from Nalgonda to Tirupati would be reduced by 120 km. People from Nalgonda and Warangal districts have to travel 160 km less to reach Chennai. Further, the bridge connects both the districts with Guntur and Ongole districts well.
