Koraput: Police on Saturday started installing CCTV cameras and high-mast lights along the new bridge over the Gurupriya river following intelligence reports of Maoists planning to blow it up.
The bridge connects 151 villages of seven panchayats in the "cut-off" area with the Malkangiri district main land.
The police said this step was in addition to the ongoing anti-rebel operations by the BSF going on in the area.
"At least six high-resolution CCTV cameras with 360 degree view and powerful high-mast lights are being installed on the bridge. The work has already begun," said Malkangiri police superintend Jagmohan Meena.
According to the SP, the control room of the CCTV cameras would be at the BSF camp situated at Janbai ferry point.
"We have one BSF camp each at Janbai and Bodopadar and security personnel have intensified anti-Maoist operations in the area," the SP said. "Though the situation is under control now, we can't be complacent."
After missing three deadlines, the much-awaited Gurupriya bridge is finally complete and waiting to be inaugurated.
"The bridge work and the 1,200-metre connecting road have been completed. Some minor works are on and the bridge will shortly be opened for traffic," said Arun Kumar Sahu, executive engineer of the public works department in Malkangiri.
Work for the 910-metre bridge connecting Janbai North with Janbai South had started in 2015 with an estimated cost of Rs 172.58 crore and was expected to be completed by June 2017. Owing to various reasons such as increase in water level in the river and changes in the original design, the work got delayed for nearly a year.
The bridge will be important for around 30,000 villagers staying across the Balimela reservoir whose only mode of connecting with outer world is country boat.
The remoteness of the villages can be traced back to the early 60s, when vast tracts of forest land and villages were submerged and remained cut-off from the mainland to make way for the Balimela reservoir of the Balimela Hydro Project.
This land is so remote that it is officially called as the "cut-off area".
