CHENNAI:
It has been almost half a decade since work on a rather small bridge across the Adyar river was abruptly stopped due to objection from the Indian Air Force (IAF). With IAF, the owner of the piece of land on which the bridge was coming up, sitting on the latest proposal for a land swap for over six months, an end is nowhere in sight for the residents of Tharapakkam, who are forced take a circuitous route to the nearest town Anakaputhur.
Work on the 250-metre bridge to connect Tharapakkam village with Anakaputhur town began in 2009, after a struggle that went on for 22 long years.
For many of the over 6,000 villagers of Dalit majority Tharapakkam, Anakaputhur town is where livelihood awaits. The town has everything — a barber shop, tea shop, hospital, high school, hotel, grocer shop, etc. Tharapakkam has none of these. In the absence of this bridge, villagers have to travel a roundabout route of about six kilometres to access Anakaputhur.
Work on the bridge was initiated by the State Highways department in 2009 at a cost of `4.20 crore, which eventually rose to `4.70 crore, and the construction finally took off in March 2010. According to project estimates, the bridge was to be 250 metres long, 12 metres wide and 7 metres wide.
However, just as the work was halfway, the IAF intervened in May 2011 with an objection, stating that the land belonged to it. The IAF had a sump station to take water from the Adyar river to their base in Tambaram about five decades ago. However, it became redundant after the implementation of a water supply scheme by the State in the 1980s.
“Two armed guards sat on this useless piece of land from dawn to dusk to prevent the Highways contractor from carrying out work on the bridge. They continued to do this for one month, till the contractor finally gave up,” said K V Gajendran, a local resident, who had been crusading for the project for decades.
While acknowledging their error in not checking the ownership of the land, Highways officials faulted the Defence Ministry for its refusal to agree for an ‘enter-upon agreement’ despite the project being beneficial to people.
“Kancheepuram Revenue officials had identified an alternative site to cede, in order to take control of this project and a proposal was submitted. IAF officials told us that the proposal had been forwarded to the Ministry, but in the six months since, we are yet to receive any response,” said an official.
For the villagers, it is a matter of life and death.
Preferring to avoid the roundabout route, residents put their lives at stake, attempting to cross the river on foot. While the drainage pipes laid by the Highways Department diverts the water flow beneath the mud, it has rendered the surface uneven like a dirt bike track. “When it rains, the water flows over and we have no other option but to wade through it. Many lives have been lost in the process,” added Gajendran, who had lost his niece to the flood waters.
Repeated attempts to contact IAF officials over the last few days by City Express proved futile.
