After 50 years, another river bridge is proposed on the Damodar in Burdwan town outskirts, linking the district town with the southern blocks and the districts like Bankura, Hooghly and West Midnapore.
The state also has proposed a 3.1km bridge in the Sagar Islands spending Rs 1,200cr.
The Mamata Banerjee government in its 2024 Budget has proposed an allocation of Rs 100cr for the 640-metre river bridge against a total estimated expenditure of Rs 246cr to be disbursed in phases to help its erection by next three years.
Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, while presenting the Budget in presence of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee termed the new bridge as ‘Shilpa Setu’ that resonates with ‘Krishak Setu’, the existing river bridge on the Burdwan – Arambagh road (state highway – 7).
“The new bridge equipped with a 4-lane taxi way will expedite passenger and freight traffic movement,” claimed finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
Siddhartha Shankar Ray, former chief minister in the Congress regime had laid the foundation for the first bridge in 1975 at Sudderghat (town port) on the Damodar river that was inaugurated in 1977 by Binoy Chowdhury, a former minister in the first Left Front government. Roy had named the 500-metre bridge as ‘Krishak Setu’, which the LF that had assumed power through a peasant movement had retained as it coincidentally had suited more with the choice of the Left political preferences.
Amol Haldar, state secretary of Krishak Sabha, CPM’s peasant front, said, “There’s been a mass movement in the southern Damodar region demanding a bridge since the early 1970s that used to remain marooned during the three months of rainy season. Due to its flood devastation, Damodar was termed as the ‘river of sorrow’.”
Now, the Mamata Banerjee government has chosen to name it as ‘Shilpa Setu’ aiming to extend a bridge with the industrial entrepreneurs. “There’s many things – mostly more potential properties that the naming by the government bears to woo the industrialists, which somehow was misinterpreted in post-Singur – Nandigram movement,” claimed Sarbojit Josh, assistant professor and a history researcher of Burdwan University.