Koraput: For thousands of villagers of at least four panchayats in the district's Nandapur block along the border with Andhra Pradesh, putting their lives at risk to cross the Kolab reservoir on country boats is a daily ritual.

According to the villagers, the government started work on a bridge over the reservoir more than five years ago, but it still remains undone.

One of the villagers said a lone country boat was their only mode of communication to reach the block headquarters town in the absence of a bridge.

"It is risky to cross the river in the country boat. We also transport our vehicles and cattle in it and it is very dangerous at times. A bridge over the river will help us," said Panthalungo resident Somnath Majhi.

"The bridge will also help the villagers reach Araku in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh as most of them depend on the bordering state for marketing," he added.

It is manageable to cross the river in the summers and the winters, but it becomes risky during the monsoon season when the water level drastically rises, another villager said. The backwater of the Kolab reservoir separates several villages of Panthalungo, Kularsingh, Golur and Parajabadopoda panchayats with the block headquarters.

The villagers said repeated demands for a bridge forced the works department to sanction one over the river.

"After a few months, the work was stopped for reasons best known to the authorities concerned. We approached the administration and elected representatives many times to complete the work, but all in vain," said Ghasiram Majhi, another villager.

"If the work is not started at the earliest, then we may resort to protests," he added.

No official of the works department was available for comment.