Reversing his eight-wheel truck into the barge on the banks of the river Krishna, K. Srinivas applies enough torque to jolt the flat boat from the sandbar into the water.
With a dozen two-wheelers, a share auto and the truck apart from 30-odd people on board, the barge, locally known as ballakattu , starts its 15-minute journey from Mattapally in Telangana to Tangedu in Andhra Pradesh.
The two villages in Suryapet here and Guntur district there, with the 60-feet-deep river in between, were connected by only traditional, unsafe boats until a decade ago. And for nearly seven years now, villagers on both sides, mostly daily wage earners in factories in the surrounding cement industries, have been using the private barge to commute to work every day.
They can travel for free, unlike frequent visitors and employees who are charged ₹20 each way.
However, much of the demand and space is commanded by vehicles that take the waterway to avoid a 50-km round journey. Motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cars and tippers are charged in the range of ₹100 to ₹800 for a round trip, based on the load. Barge supervisor T. Krishna Reddy makes ₹15,000 from 30 trips each day, putting all ‘cuts’ aside.
An effective solution initiated by the government of Andhra Pradesh in February 2014 — an 845-metre overbridge at a cost of ₹50 crore — is still a work in progress with nearly 25% works pending.
Roads and Buildings officials say the project is now being executed by government of Telangana, and the works were delayed by contractors and due to technical reasons. However, it is likely to be “operational” by May-end, they say.
