SANGHAR, Sept 25: People have stolen away a British-era wooden bridge over Nara Canal plank by plank and beam by beam over a period of about three months, leaving its bare steel structure jutting out of water.

The bridge, which connected the city with Achhro Thar, had almost been abandoned after a new and wider concrete bridge had been constructed a few months ago.

Only pedestrians, two-wheelers, bull-carts and donkey-carts were using it as a short cut to reach their destinations a little earlier after the construction of new bridge.

People of the nearby localities and villages dismantled the wooden planks and beams worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, loaded them onto trucks in broad daylight and drove them away with complete impunity and no one dared stop them.

Some also tried to wrench open the old rusted nuts and bolts of the steel structure but failed and gave up the idea altogether probably due to their gigantic size and weight.

With the bridge gone, people on both sides of the canal are deprived of a short cut and the city of a historically important monument, which had believably added to its beauty.

Mohammad Alam Shar, a Darogha of Irrigation Department, has filed an FIR at Mangli police station under section 379 PPC against unidentified thieves for stealing away the bridge.

Area people said that everyone knew well who the thieves were but no one would ever speak about them.