Bodiappanur locals pool money, lay footbridge in a day

The village has nearly 2,000 residents, who are mostly agricultural labourers. “Before the Mordhana reservoir was constructed, villagers would walk across the Koundaya river to reach Mordhana village from where they would take the local bus to reach Guidyattam,” said village headman Sivanandi. 

“We faced problems during the rainy season when the reservoir surpluses as then we had to trek to Kottar near Chittor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and reach Gudiyattam via Vellore, which necessitated a trip of nearly 80 km,” said Arjunan of the locality. 

Sivanandi further said, “We have been petitioning the district administration for the last 17 years requesting a footbridge connecting Bodiappanur and Mordhana villages.” However, as their plea fell on deaf ears, the villagers decided to act on their own.

Sivanandi called on villagers to provide their own money when the recent rain resulted in Bodiappanur being cut off from Mordhana. A village meeting decided on a house to house collection, which resulted in Rs 60,000 being pooled in for the task. 

The villagers then purchased casuarina poles and standing in thigh deep water constructed a 60 feet long footbridge in 12 hours. “We started the work at 6 am and finished by 6 pm,” said Perumal of the area. Proud of their work, Perumal added, “We have achieved what the government has failed. The bridge can be used by 20 people at a time.” 

PWD officials, when asked about it, said there were ‘constraints’ in putting up a bridge refused to elaborate further.