CRPF builds ropeway for tribal hamlets

The area falls under naxal-affected Pamed police station limits in Usur block of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. As Pamed is located at a distance of 110 km from Bijapur, adivasis visit Cherla for their daily needs and depend on hospitals in Cherla for medical treatment.

Cherla: The CRPF 151 battalion has built a ropeway across Chintavagu stream on Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders to ensure connectivity to adivasi hamlets and for the movements of troops.

Chintavagu near Pamed is 18 km away from Cherla mandal and it would be in spate during from June to January confining nearly 10, 000 adivasis of 35 hamlets to the forests. Adivasis used to cross the stream on country boats but it turned fatal sometimes.

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The area falls under naxal-affected Pamed police station limits in Usur block of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. As Pamed is located at a distance of 110 km from Bijapur, adivasis visit Cherla for their daily needs and depend on hospitals in Cherla for medical treatment.

Chintavagu base camp and Dharmaram base camp have been established in recent times on either side of the stream to tackle Maoist menace and the troops also faced trouble in crossing the stream during monsoon and they remain cut off from the outside world.

To address the problem, CRPF (Chhattisgarh) Inspector General of Police Saket Kumar Singh initiated the ropeway project while CRPF deputy Inspector General of Police Sunit Kumar Rai and CRPF 151 Bn Commandant Pradyuman Kumar monitored the works.

The 200 metre ropeway was constructed by a team of 25 engineers of CRPF 151 Bn and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) unit.

The work started on May 2 under the command of ITBP assistant Commandant Prem Kumar was completed on a war footing on June 4.

The ropeway carrier could carry four persons at a time. In order to ensure permanent connectivity to adivasi villages the construction of a bridge across Chintavagu was undertaken two years ago.

But it is still not completed as Maoists have been causing disturbances to block the construction of the bridge. CRPF 151 Bn second in command Ayodhya Singh who inaugurated the ropeway a recently said that the villagers could cross the stream even in the rainy season to attend to their daily chores and come back, he added.