Malkangiri: The seven-member team of the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) reached Malkangiri district on Wednesday to begin their three-day audit of Gurupriya bridge that will connect 151 cut-off villages with the mainland in the district.

"The quality and safety aspects of the bridge will be audited. The materials used in the construction of the bridge will also be examined," said G.K. Sahoo, a member of the audit team.

The bridge would be thrown open for public after the CRRI team submits its final report to the state government.

"Trial run of vehicles is being done on the bridge and there is no problem in plying of heavy vehicles. However, if any defect is found during the inspection, such faults will be rectified at the earliest," said Arun Kumar Sahu, executive engineer, public works department, Malkangiri.

The state government had requested the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to conduct a third-party quality audit of the bridge.

"The CSIR had agreed to conduct the audit at a cost of Rs 38.56 lakh and 50 per cent of the amount has already been given to the CSIR. The remaining amount will be paid after submission of the final audit report by the CRRI," said Sahu.

Work for the 910-metre-long bridge connecting Janbai North with Janbai South started in 2015 with an estimated project cost of Rs 172.58 crore.

The bridge will be a lifeline for around 30,000 villagers residing across the Balimela reservoir whose only mode of connecting with outer world at present is country boat.

This land is so remote that it is officially called as the "cut-off area". Though the bridge assumes significance for the development of the region, the Maoists active in the area had successfully stalled its work as they felt that construction of the bridge would hampering their activities in the region.

Drug bust

Police on Thursday arrested three drug peddlers and seized brown sugar weighing 20 grams from the accused in Bhubaneswar. The cops also seized cash Rs 1.48 lakh in cash from them.

The accused have been identified as Krushnachandra Nath, 23, Chittaranjan Routray, 49, and Bijay Behera, 21.