The underconstruction rail and road bridge over Kosi in Supaul. Picture by Amit Kumar

Supaul, Aug. 26: Commuters on the Supaul-Madhubani rail route will no longer need to take a circuitous route to reach their destinations. The new rail-cum-road bridge on Kosi will drastically cut down the distance between the two districts.

At present, travellers have to go via Saharsa, Barauni, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Sakri and Jhanjharpur to reach Nirmali in Supaul, covering a distance of 299km. Once the bridge is constructed, they will need to cover only 22km.

Not only will travel time be reduced, people will save on expenditure.

However, the road ahead of the bridge is not without bumps. Around 70,000 residents of 52 villages of Nirmali and Saraigarh Bhaktiyari blocks will be affected by its construction.

Sources said the pillars of the 11-km-long bridge would constrict the flow of the river. As a result, water could inundate several villages on the riverbank. Water would also seep in through the embankments at several places.

At least 12 pillars would be constructed to support the bridge between Santapataha near Nirmali and Saraigarh Bhaktiyari in Madhubani district.

“The 11km-15km-wide turbulent river would get only 1.8km space after the pillars come up,” said an expert.

In fact, the preliminary construction has resulted in water inundating a number of villages near the embankments and thousands of residents have been forced to take shelter near National Highway 57.

“Our survival is at stake. The situation was not so grim even in 1969, when 9 lakh cusecs of water had been released through the Bhimnagar barrage. The bridge is coming up at the cost of our life and existence,” said Karun Kumar, a resident of Bhaptiahi. He added: “We have been forced to flee our village.”

The calamity that the villagers are facing is not a sudden development.

Bhagwan Das, former chief engineer of the state water resources department, in a letter dated September 1, 2003, warned: “The bridge might pose a serious problem for the people in the area.” Former secretary of the water resources department, V. Jaishankar, too, had reportedly voiced his concern about the bridge construction.

Expert on Kosi affairs, Dinesh Kumar Mishra, however, said the residents living in 52 villages in the vicinity of the river had been well compensated and shifted to other places way back in 1958 when the embankment was built. They, however, gradually came back to their original villages, which were already below the level of the embankments.

The affected villagers have petitioned to Supaul district magistrate, the water resources department, National Highway Authority of India, Indian Railways and Ganga Flood Control Commission. However, they are yet to get a response from the administration.