BJP leaders wave at the crowd during their rickshaw ride at the inaugural ceremony of the Dibdih flyover in Ranchi. Picture by Askoh Karan

Ranchi, April 27: Ending all speculations, two rickshaw-pullers propped up by the BJP today ?unofficially? inaugurated phase-I of the Dibdih railway overbridge, the maiden ROB completed since the inception of Jharkhand.

The inauguration of the bridge, ready since December 21, 2005, was delayed allegedly due to a stand off between the state government and the railway ministry over the closure of the level-crossing. Officially, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was supposed to do the honours.

The overbridge on VIP Road linking the state secretariat with the place where the VVIPs stay became busy with traffic soon after the ?public commissioning? early this evening. BJP leaders crossed the overbridge on dozens of rickshaws followed by many private, government and even military vehicles.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation administrator Ravi Shankar Verma and Ranchi SP (City) Akhilesh Jha were among the first to use the overbridge.

A visibly thrilled Verma stopped his official car and shook hands with Rajya Sabha member Ajay Maroo and congratulated him for commissioning the overbridge, albeit unofficially. He also thanked city BJP chief Sanjay Seth for the move. The SP, however, preferred to zoom away with a smile in his Maruti Gypsy.

Earlier, the rickshaw-pullers ? Dubbu Mirdha and Munna Kachhap ? inaugurated the the bridge in traditional style by breaking coconuts and cutting a ribbon amid applause and slogans of the BJP activists outnumbered by onlookers, mediapersons and the waiting traffic stuck in the snarl. The dramatic inauguration was also watched by many anxious residents of the area.

Local BJP leader Gama Singh offered shawls and garlanded the elderly rickshaw-pullers in presence of Maru, Seth, Ranchi BJP legislator C.P. Singh and Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries? chief Arjun Jalan. All of them hailed the step as pro-people.

Addressing the mediapersons, Singh claimed the move was purely of the Ranchi BJP and the chief minister was unaware of it. He blamed the railway minister for politicising the commissioning of the bridge ready for the last six months.

?Elsewhere bridges are completed in six months, but here it took over four years since Lalu has stopped work in all railway projects in Jharkhand. Lalu is giving step-motherly treatment to the state,? the local legisla- tor said.

Seth said the bridge built from public money was inaugurated by common public, as the state government and Maroo could not get it inaugurated by the railway minister despite trying hard. Ironically, Jharkhand has borne Rs 9 crore of the total project cost of Rs 11 crore, he added.

Maroo said after Dibdih they would shift their focus on Kadru railway overbridge, which is also under construction since long. He said Lalu was intentionally delaying the commissioning of the overbridge.

Sources in Konkan Railways, the contractor of the overbridge, maintained that the commissioning of the overbridge was not being delayed due to Yadav, but because of the commitment of the Jharkhand government to close the level-crossing.

?The railways cannot commission any overbridge until the district administration closes the level-crossing,? sources said.

Officially, an ROB is inaugurated jointly by the railways and the state government, but it is possible only when the level crossing is closed.