The Basra river flows through the approach road to the bridge in Kalchini on Thursday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Kalchini(Alipurduar), July 14: The swollen Basra washed away part of the approach road to a bridge spanning the river last night, affecting around 10,000 people who use the route everyday.

At least 30 metres of the road to the temporary bridge connecting Kalchini to Jaigaon and Hasimara has been damaged by the river.

The bridge that was built in October last year is near Hamiltungunj in Kalchini block, 34km from Alipurduar town.

With the approach road giving away, residents of Hasimara, Jaigaon, Satali, Dalshingpara, Madhu and Malangi who want to travel to the block headquarters in Kalchini will now have to cover an extra 25km through NH31C. It is the only other way to reach Kalchini and Hamiltungunj on the other side of the Basra river.

Kanchhi Lama, who came to Hamiltungunj from Jaigaon to see a doctor, said: “Yesterday we thought that we would reach Hamiltungunj by 10am because the doctor stays till 12 noon. But it is already 12 and I have just reached Kalchini. I do not know if I would be able to meet the doctor today. I had to come via NH31C.”

Hamiltungunj is more than 1km from Kalchini.

Chandan Lohar, a resident of Satali, said: “Usually it takes 20 minutes to reach the BDO office at Kalchini from Satali but today it took me more than one hour.”

Besides being the block headquarters, Kalchini has five Higher Secondary schools. The only health centre of the block is at Latabari near Kalchini and the main market of the block is in Hamiltungunj.

Barun Mitra, the secretary of the Kalchini Byabsayee Samiti, said: “We were certain that this year the bridge and the approach road would get washed away because the work was not up to the mark. We had gheraoed the BDO last year demanding proper construction work but nothing has been done. Now people of five gram panchayat areas will have problems visiting the block headquarters. There are at least five Higher Secondary schools in Kalchini and hundreds of students will now have to use the rail bridge either on bicycles or on foot to go to their schools from Mendabari, Satali and Madhu. This can be very risky,” Mitra said.

The railway bridge is 300 metre from the temporary bridge.

According to Mitra, around 10,000-12,000 people use Basra bridge everyday to travel to and from Kalchini.

Atul Subba, the sabhapati of Kalchini panchayat samiti, said: “I had repeatedly told the PWD officials to extend the span of the bridge to at least 120 metre otherwise the approach road would not stay during the monsoon. But nothing was done. Now people of the area are annoyed and they are blaming us unnecessarily. Around Rs 90 lakh was spent on the bridge which is also in a poor condition and might get washed away anytime.”

The present bridge spanning the Basra is around 60 metre long. It was constructed last year, as a temporary arrangement, after the bridge across the river was washed away in monsoon. The permanent structure will take around three years to be constructed.

Tapas Saha, the executive engineer of PWD (roads) Alipurduar, however, said the approach road would be constructed soon. “It is a temporary bridge and we did not have enough time to build it because we were in a hurry to build a road for the people. It is the causeway, which has been damaged. Soon we will complete the approach road and vehicles will start plying the route again,” he added.