MEGHALAYA'S LIVING ROOT BRIDGES UNDER PMGSY

Efforts are on to bring Meghalaya’s bio-engineering wonders, the living root bridges, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).


The living root bridges are built by connecting local rubber tree (Ficus elastica) roots over betel-nut tree trunks, till they fasten to become bridges over gushing stream. These bridges scattered near Sohra (Cherrapunjee) have been live-savers for remote villagers.

However, the villagers’ hard toil has so far not received government attention; although, the PMGSY gives special importance to eco-friendly engineering works. “These bridges are bio-engineering wonders and extremely durable,” MM Sun, Chief Engineer and PMGSY nodal officer said.

A key to rural development is to have all weather connectivity in the rural sector. The objective of PMGSY is therefore to provide all weather road, culvert and bridges to uplift the socio-economic condition of the rural sector through better connectivity.

Under the PMGSY scheme, an unconnected habitation with 500 people is to be connected. For hilly and desert terrain the population limit is 250. The centre funds the scheme and the state distributes 80 percent of the fund for building roads and bridges and the rest is earmarked for maintaining existing ones.

In this context, the state government is brainstorming how the villages with living root bridges can be brought under the PMGSY, so that villagers can be rewarded for their hard labour, as there is virtually no maintenance cost of the root bridges.

A major hurdle in this direction, Sun said, is villages where the root bridges are found are sparsely populated without the requisite PMGSY population limit of even 250. Therefore, project reports are being worked out to get adjoining villages so that they can be clubbed together and accommodated under the scheme.

“We would see how these living root bridges can be brought under the scheme by clubbing adjacent village with sparse population,” he added.




One of the most well known living root bridge is the Umshiang double-decker bridge in the village of bee-keepers in Nongthymmai near Nongriat. It is 30 meter long and can take the load of 50 people at a time, villagers claim.

Another such bridge, near Laitkynsew village, the Umnnoi living Root Bridge is a 53 ft long and is locally known as “Jingkieng Deingjri” meaning “bridge of the rubber tree.” It is said that the bridge is more than 100 years old.

The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1844 by a Lieutenant H Yule first mentioned about these bio-engineering wonders. Not much interest was taken in them until recently with wide media coverage these have become major tourist attractions.




Meghalaya, meanwhile, is one of the seven states in the country along with Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab to receive funded from the World Bank this year for implementing the VI phase of PMGSY.

An amount of $ 1500 has been earmarked to be divided amongst these seven states, out of which Meghalaya’s share would be Rs. 315 crore.

So far, the state has built 348 roads out of a targeted 399, constructing a total road length of 867.4 km. In the next phase, the state has targeted construction of 483 roads to connect 570 habitations with a total road length of 2440 kms.