RMDD sanctions Rs. 40 lakh to replace Rodong khola’s killer bridge

SUBASH RAI
GANGTOK: The Rural Management and Development Department on Thursday sanctioned around Rs. 40 lakhs for immediate construction of a steel bridge over Rodong Khola under Rey Gram Panchayat Unit in East Sikkim to replace the existing bridge there which is in a deplorable condition. [click here for background]
One of the villagers of Rodong, while speaking to NOW! on Tuesday had rightly pointed out, “Now this incident [a young boy had lost his lives after falling from the Rodong Bridge] might open the eyes of the concerned authorities.”

Rodong Khola’s precarious bridge claims one

SUBASH RAI

GANGTOK: The pedestrian bridge across Rodong Khola under Rey GPU here below Gangtok, in a typically pathetic condition, claimed the life of a young boy on Sunday. This 50-metre suspension bridge is in abject disrepair, as the accompanying photograph proves, and on Sunday a young lad took a fatal fall from it. The bridge lies on a pedestrian shortcut for the villages of Rey, Mindu and Sajong to reach Adam Pool.
The condition of the bridge is so dangerous that villagers who need to use it, choose instead to ford the khola below. But now with the monsoons approaching, the Rodong khola will become impossible to walk across and the bridge will remain the only option; an option which scares everyone here, especially parents whose children need to use it on a daily basis to reach school.