During day time the Adityapur toll bridge over the Kharkai river is a pleasant stretch to ride through, but one needs guts to negotiate through it in the night.
Connecting Adityapur in adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district to Kadma locality in the steel city, the two km-long toll road turns scary after the dusk as none of the lamps on the important road is functional. As a result, the toll road remains unlit and commuters are left with the option of either detouring through the Kharkai bridge in Bistupur or risking their lives while riding through the unlit stretch.
A large number of commuters use the toll bridge for going to the Adityapur industrial area for attending their duty in the night. Apart from the industrial workers, the toll road is also used by people and students who come to the steel city from Adityapur and Gamharia for shopping purpose and coaching classes.
"While riding through the unlit toll road, I have to take extra precautions against heavy vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Though it is a one-way road, the strong beams of headlights get my vision blurred. Had the road been properly lit, the headlights' beams would not have been an issue," said Tarkeshwar Sinha, a resident of Ulyan in Kadma.
Sinha (56) who works in an industrial unit at Adityapur had met with an accident on the toll road in January this year but survived the mishap with a multiple injury on his left leg. Like Sinha, several others have been victims to the unlit toll road, but the authority concerned did nothing to fix the defunct lamps.
Set up by Adityapur Toll Bridge Company Ltd (ATBCL) in the year 2011, the toll bridge was maintained well till 2018, but after the Domuhani bridge was set up over the Subernarekha river connecting Sonari to NH-33 through Dobo in Chandil, its maintenance has suffered.
An official of the ATBCL said that after the Domuhani bridge came into being in 2018, a good number of heavy vehicles evade the toll bridge route, thus causing huge revenue loss leaving impact on its maintenance.
