Kendrapada, Nov 11 (IANS) A group of students has repaired a pothole-marked stretch of a road in Orissa’s Kendrapada district with the help of their teachers and villagers in just 10 days.
The students of the government evening college in Kendrapada, some 150 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, repaired and rebuilt the 500-metre earthen road in Chanuchnia village, 15 km from Kendrapada, at virtually no cost last week.
“We repeatedly urged authorities to repair the road. But they did not pay any heed to it,” college principal Ajaya Kumar Biswal told IANS.
“I told the students to repair the road if they can and they accepted the challenge. When they started work during the Dussehra puja holidays, villagers also decided to help them.”
At least 45 students and four teachers took up the work as part of a special National Service Scheme (NSS) camp, devoting at least three hours every day, he said.
“The villagers provided shovels and pick-axes to dig earth. The students covered the road with earth, put tar on it and raised the height of the road by about one foot,” said Madhusudan Kamila, a teacher at the college.
Villagers had to face problems due to the condition of the road. During the rainy season, they had to walk through knee-deep water on the road, said Sarbeswar Pradhan, a villager.
“We are happy that we don’t have to face problems next year,” he said.
Moreover, the improvement has come free of cost.
“If this work was given to a government-listed contractor, it would have cost about Rs.200,000,” said Rabindra Das, an engineer with the roads and building department.
Apart from rebuilding the road, the students also cleared weeds from a village pond, planted 300 saplings and organised health camps with the help of doctors from a government hospital, said Dilip Kumar Mohanty, a programme officer of the NSS unit of the college.