Scores of farmers cultivating dry lands in Jainad mandal of Adilabad district are now able to go in for a second crop. Hundreds of wild animals in Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), Jannaram mandal in Mancherial district are not going thirsty in summer months thanks to availability of plenty of water in the local stream in the forest around the mandal headquarter town.
These two developments, their locations separated by a distance of about 140 km, and some other similar ones seen lately across former composite Adilabad district, have come about thanks to construction of many new high level bridges (HLB) across local streams, with check dams under them.
Better roads
“Thanks to the check dam of the HLB close to our village, enough water is standing in the stream on either side of it to irrigate at least 500 acres of dry land in rabi season, which is a second crop,” revealed farmer Deshetti Ashok from Jainad village who has sown bengal gram in his five acres as a second crop.
The check dam under the HLB at Jannaram arrests water upstream for a distance of over 500 metres. The wild animals in KTR are now accessing this water helping them tide over the drier and difficult summer months.
“This transformation is a result of betterment of bad roads and bridges in the erstwhile undivided Adilabad district,” observed Adilabad R&B Superintending Engineer (SE) Md. Nazeer Ahmed. “Adilabad district got much prominence when it came to allocations for different type of works during the first spell of this government,” he pointed out.
Abundant funds
“Under widening of roads connecting mandal headquarters to district headquarters, 21 works were undertaken at a cost of ₹ 514 crore, and under widening and reconstruction of bridges as many as 90 structures were taken up at a cost of ₹ 431 crore, in both cases the allocations being highest among all erstwhile districts. In addition, 22 roads were widened from single lane to double lane at a cost of about ₹ 285 crore,” the SE reeled out figures.
Some of the works which were part of the road development initiative of the government and which deserve a mention are the Adilabad-Bela Inter-State Road, the Gudem Inter-State bridge and the Utnoor-Asifabad Road which saw the R&B department even saving precious money by innovating. The Gudem Bridge has opened access to parts of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra from Bejjur mandal in Kumram Bheem (KB) Asifabad district and the improvement of Utnoor-Asifabad Road has fuelled economic growth in the utterly poor tribal areas of Adilabad and KB Asifabad.
