Bridge on the river Magai

When there's a will, there's a way, they say. Residents of Kyampur Chhavni, a village in UP's Ghazipur district, say when there's a will, there's a bridge... not yet, but soon. Tired of waiting for authorities, these villagers have crowdfunded and pooled resources to begin building a bridge on a tiny river - the Magai - that has long stood between them and the rest of the world.

The district administration says the villagers were impatient, that they should have waited. Residents say they have waited 58 years - long enough!

The Magai is 70ft wide, and the lack of a bridge has had a huge effect on not just the 3,500-odd residents of Kyampur village, but more than 70,000 residents of around 50 villages on either side of the river, who have had to take a 40km detour to cover a distance of less than 10km to reach the district headquarters.

Villagers have tried crossing the river to reach Nonahara market, 3km from district hospital and headquarters, but there have been accidents in the past.

Things began to look up in June 2022, when the then gram pradhan, Shashi Kala Upadhyay and Kasimabad block pramukh Manoj Gupta started work on an embankment along the river with provisions for a vehicular bridge. But just as villagers started to get hopeful, the project, undertaken under MGNREGS, encountered "administrative hurdles".

In Jan 2024, Ravindra Yadav, a civil engineer with 55 Engineer Regiment of India Army's Corps of Engineers, came to live in his ancestral house in Kyampur after retirement. "I served in the Army for three decades and helped build bridges across the country, particularly in remote areas of Nagaland and Manipur," says Ravindra, who also served in Border Roads Organisation. "After retiring, I was disheartened to discover my village still lacking direct connectivity with the district headquarters. I decided to build a bridge, and fortunately received support from villagers and influential individuals, including architects and bridge engineers I met during my service."

Ravindra gave Rs 10 lakh from his retirement funds and offered technical expertise to help build the bridge.

"This gesture galvanised local sentiment and gave confidence to locals," says Ravindra's elder brother, Kalika.

"People chipped in with whatever they could," says Ram Naresh Rajbhar, a village elder. "Contributions as little as Rs 100 were made. Those who had no money offered help in kind - cement, sand, steel rebars and labour, after finishing their regular jobs."

Ravindra readied the design for a 105ft bridge across the river, and the project was ready to be reborn.

The ground-breaking ceremony was on Feb 25, 2024. Present at the event was Allahabad HC's Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav. In his short speech, the judge praised the grit and spirit of local residents.

"So far, apart from constructing retaining walls on both banks, four pillars have been erected," says Kalika, who is account-keeper. "Slabbing is in progress. We have spent around Rs 65 lakh, and need Rs 30 lakh more to complete girder and slab work and to build a slope up to the approach road."

The villagers' efforts were also noticed by Mohammadabad MLA Suhaib Ansari, who donated Rs 1 lakh and high-mast lights to illuminate the construction site for late-night work.

Ansari says when his father, Sibgatullah Ansari was MLA between 2012 and 2017, he had forwarded the bridge construction file to state govt, and upon becoming MLA himself in 2022, Ansari raised the issue in his inaugural speech, requesting immediate funds. .The villagers, however, aren't convinced. They blame their plight on a lack of political will.

"Since 1967, villagers have been demanding a bridge on the Magai from public representatives," says Kalika. "Before every election, they used to send junior engineers or other officials with measurement machines. After being voted to office, all promises were forgotten," Kalika added.

The district administration has also taken note of the under-construction bridge. "Experts from PWD and UP Bridge Corporation are checking the structures built by the villagers for quality and load-bearing standards," says DM Aryka Akhauri. She says the villagers have been asked to halt work until the checks are over. This is important for public safety, she adds, because experts were not involved in the construction, nor were permissions sought for the work.

But villagers are not waiting any longer. As dusk descends, they get ready with spades, shovels and a whole lot of resolve - there's a bridge to be built, after all.