GUJRAT: The pedestrian side of the railway Victoria Bridge connecting Malakwal tehsil of Mandi Bahauddin district to Pind Dadan Khan tehsil of Jhelum district over the river Jhelum has been closed for motorcyclists and cyclists for a few weeks causing problems for hundreds of commuters who passed through the bridge daily.

The pedestrian bridge was closed three weeks ago when family members of a girl who had died after falling through a weak wooden plank of the bridge had broken some more planks in protest.

However the bridge was recently opened for pedestrians after the railway authorities fixed new planks, but motorcyclists still could not utilise the bridge.

Tariq Mahmood, a Malakwal local, told Dawn that people were compelled to load their motorbikes on boats to get to the other side of the river which was very risky. He said that at least 4,000 people from Malakwal and Pind Dadan Khan used to travel between each side daily. The other option they had was by train that only travelled to each side twice all day.

A separate asphalt bridge for motorists had been a longstanding demand of residents of these towns for over three decades. Successive governments had even pledged to establish the bridge but the project never took off.

The Punjab government once again approved construction of the bridge by including the project in the annual development budget of the current fiscal year and allocated sufficient funds, but progress on it was still awaited.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2017