Broad roads, tiled footpaths and fancy lamps make a picturepostcard entry into Valpoi the capital of Sattari taluka in the North.
Even as Valpoi made rapid progress in the last five years,the same cannot be said about various little villages comprising the Sattaritaluka. Development and progress in these villages is a far cry from Valpoi.
Little villages like Sawarde in Sawarde villag panchayat,Morlem-Bagwada in Morlem village panchayat and Pelavade in Kerim villagepanchayat are facing problem of narrow bridges.
In fact narrow bridges have blocked the pace of developmentin these villages. Transportation has been hampered for want of propervehicular bridge in these areas.
During the elections political parties of various huesdisplay the issue of narrow bridges on their manifesto, but soon after theresults everyone forgets about it. And the villages are quietly forgotten.
Sawarde village is just about 6 km away from Valpoi town viaDabose. People from this village have to walk across a narrow bridge in orderto cross over the Mhadei river.
The 200 metre long bridge with a width of only 2 metre wasconstructed in the year 1970 when Pratapsing Rane was the MLA of Valpoiconstituency.
The intention to construct a narrow bridge was to keepcontrol on illegal cutting and transportation of trees in order to safeguardenvironment.
“Rane was very much concerned about the environment. He wasafraid that a broader bridge would encourage theft of wood and therefore builta narrow bridge across the river,” a local disclosed.
Due to the narrow bridge no passenger vehicles or rickshawscan pass over the bridge. The villagers have to take a detour through the Sonalroad, which is 15 kms away from the village.
For a goods vehicle the distance increases to 18 kms fromValpoi via Khadki-Velguem, thereby increasing the travelling cost.
“We have walked long distances to catch the nearest bridge.Our generation has almost come to an end. We expected at least the newgeneration to get a vehicular bridge. But that too seems to be a distantdream,” rued Datta Gaonkar a 65-year-old resident from the village.
“A vehicular bridge is very important to Sawarde as well asmany other connecting villages. This was a demand of the people for the last somany years,” said Anil Nene the Sarpanch of Sawarde village panchayat.
It is learnt that a former member of the village panchayathad taken a resolution in this regard and had handed over the resolution ofconstructing a new bridge to the local MLA Vishwajeet Rane.
