Surroundedby hills and tall trees, Satre is a typical country-side village in Sattari onthe Goa-Karnataka border.
Almost forgotten, the village has seen no development whatsoeverfrom the time of Goa’s liberation. From Valpoi an 18 km perfectly tarred road serpents towardsSatre and ends on the banks of a river.
This is where the problems of Satre village starts and ends.The river separates the village from the mainland. The village lies 3 kms away,across the river from the mainland.
For the last 51 years the village has seen no progress onlybecause there is no bridge connecting the village to the mainland.
The village remains cut off from the mainland during themonsoons, as the river remains swollen for at least five months from Juneonwards.
It is near to impossible to cross the river during the rains.Only during emergencies do the villagers try and swim across. “The villagershave been swimming across during an emergency “ either to visit the market or adoctor.” Many persons have even lost their lives while crossing the river, headded.
In 2002, when the BJP first came to power, there were effortsmade to build a bridge. Manohar Parrikar, the then chief minister assured toconstruct a bridge across the river.
Since the village was small in size, instead of incurringhuge expenses on a new bridge, the government decided to shift the oldstructure of Bhanastari“Marcela bridge and put it across river Satre. (Thegovernment had already built a new bridge across Bhanastari).
Presently the structure (bridge) is lying across the river. Butthe problem is to construct approach road from both sides of the bridge.
To construct the approach road almost 80 teak wood trees needto be cut, which the forest department initially refused and therefore thebridge could not be used by the locals.
At the moment the villagers have constructed temporary woodenladders to climb over the bridge.
According to the range forest officer at Valpoi , Vishwanath Pingulkarthe forest department had already cleared the file granting the government NOC(No objection certificate) to construct the approach road.
An official of Goa Infrastructure Corporation alsoconfirmed that he had received an NOC fromthe forest department and that work on the approach road would begin after themonsoons.
