Nearly 300,000 people to be affected after removal of pontoon bridge in UP

Around 3 lakh people from three districts of Uttar Pradesh will be affected after a pontoon bridge over the river Ramganga will be dismantled as part of an annual exercise here.

Providing a vital link to 3 lakh people from the districts of Shahjahanpur, Budaun and Farrukhabad, the 115-metre-long pontoon bridge also known as the floating bridge has been an integral part of their lives.

According to officials, the dismantling of the bridge is a precautionary measure keeping in view the coming monsoon season.

Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Tribhuvan said the 115-metre-long pontoon bridge is a temporary arrangement, and the pontoon bridges are put over rivers after the rains and floods are over. The pontoon bridge at Kolaghat was also a temporary arrangement.

Once the bridge is removed, people in Kalan tehsil of the district will have to cover 100 kilometre instead of the earlier 52 kilometre to reach the district headquarters here.

"Around 3 lakh people will be affected by the removal of the bridge, as people from Buduan, Farrukhabad and Shahjahanpur have been using this bridge," Kalan Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Dashrath Kumar told PTI.

Residents of Kalan tehsil will have to travel 20 kilometres of Amritpur tehsil in Farrukhabad to reach Shahjahanpur district headquarters, a senior office bearer of Kalan nagar panchayat said.

Kalan Nagar Panchayat chairman Harinarayan Gupta said with the removal of the bridge, the villagers will have to change four buses and cover a distance of 100 kilometres to reach the district headquarters.

The people coming to the district court from Kalan will also have to spend four to five hours extra. Earlier, the same distance used to be covered in half the time, he added.

According to officials, in 2009, a concrete bridge named Kolaghat was built over rivers Ramganga a tributary of Ganga and Bahubul a tributary of Ramganga covering a length of 1,880 metres. After it got damaged in 2021, people started crossing the rivers by boat.

At the request of the locals, a pontoon bridge was installed, which was removed after June 15 last year.

Public Works Department (PWD) Executive Engineer Ratin Sinha said the concrete bridge was made in 2009 by the UP Bridge Corporation Limited. After one of its pillars got damaged in 2021, the department made a temporary bridge, which is removed during the rainy season.

The bridge will be removed in the next 15-20 days, he added.

Sinha said the pontoon bridge is generally installed in October-November, adding that the same process was followed last year as well.

BJP MLA from Jalalabad Hari Prakash Verma said he has sent a proposal to the state government to build a new 1,800-metre-long bridge over both rivers and has sought to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath regarding the matter.

Shailendra Pandey, a resident of Mirzapur block, said with the removal of the bridge, villagers will have to take the river route to reach the district headquarters where the boatmen charge arbitrary fares.