Tamil Nadu

Proposal for construction of footbridge at Meemisal

— Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam

Available route: The badly damaged footbridge at Meemisal in Pudukottai district.

PUDUKOTTAI: The district administration has sent a proposal to the Tsunami Project Implementation Unit, Chennai, for constructing a footbridge across the backwaters at Meemisal, a coastal village 75 km from here, for facilitating the local residents to access a percolation potable water source.

The proposal, necessitated by the weakening of an old bridge in the area, involves an expenditure of Rs.15 lakh under the ‘Additional Plan for providing basic amenities,’ Collector D. Uthirakkumaran said.

The Pudukottai Tsunami District Project Implementation Unit has been sanctioned Rs.2.62 crore under the plan for providing additional infrastructure to the tsunami-hit Avudaiyarkovil and Meemisal blocks, he said.

Considering the risk being taken by the women of R. Pudupattinam, a nearby hamlet, who trek a distance and cross the backwaters on a weak foot-bridge, the district administration has planned to construct a bridge, he said.

The Executive Engineer (Tsunami), P.R. Jayaprakash, said that the foot-bridge was constructed in 1992 under the ‘Jawahar Rozgar Yojana’ scheme with a total of 52 stone- pillars on the backwaters.

Battered by bad weather over the years, the bridge had weakened, forcing the locals to set up bamboo and wooden logs at several places, as many a concrete slab had collapsed due to corrosion by salinity.

Locals say that incidents of women falling into the backwaters, particularly while returning after collecting water from the percolation source, were a common phenomenon. “Despite the risk, we prefer to reach the source in the wake of its high order of potability" say the villagers.

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