Beating a path to prosperity in harsh terrains

It was late afternoon when Sanju of village Galah felt labour pains. Situated in interior Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh, the village is not connected by road. Four men had to carry her on a chair tied to two logs (called bauli in the local dialect), climbing a treacherous steep footpath to reach the nearest road-head at Gagan Ghati.

The climb took over three and a half hours. By the time they hired a vehicle and reached Kamla Nehru hospital in Shimla late in the evening, it was too late. Sanju delivered a stillborn baby.

“I have lost four children because we could not reach the hospital in time,” laments Dinesh.

“Patients have to be carried either on one’s back or on a bauli along the steep path. You then need some mode of transport from Gagan Ghati to reach the nearest hospital or health centre in Matiana, Sunni or Shimla, depending on how serious the patient’s condition is,” says Kewal Raj Verma, a former Pradhan of Dharogra gram panchayat, under which the two villages of Galah and Sarya fall.

Dinesh says students have to walk five km to reach the nearest high school in Sandoa and 10 km for the senior secondary school in Dharogra. “They start at 6.30 am and return after dark. Parents have to make arrangements to escort them home.”

Verma says that although the people here have apple orchards, they do not earn much as the carriage charges are very high.

“Apple boxes have to be carried on ponies and it costs ₹100 to take one box to the road-head.”

Hope comes along

Now there is a ray of hope for the over 1,000 inhabitants of these two villages. After nearly a decade-long wait since the first survey of the area in 2007, the construction of an all-weather motorable road finally began in April this year.

Verma says 60 villagers readily donated land for the construction and the authorities concerned, including the tehsildar, were very cooperative, yet the work was delayed. Clearance from the forest department took over four years and there were delays caused by red tape too.

The villagers are hopeful that with the road construction underway currently, they would soon be able to use transport and not spend hours climbing up and down the hill on foot.

“Once completed, this road will no doubt transform our lives. The children will get enough time to study, nobody will have to die or suffer because of delays in reaching a hospital.”

Farmers too are hopeful of selling their produce with increased profit and thus improve their standard of life.

Difficult terrain

SDO Rajeev Shaunak is supervising the construction of the 9.195-km road that will connect the twin villages of Galah and Sarya with road-heads in Danpad and Sandoa.

He says work is continuing apace even during the rains, but may take over a year to complete owing to the difficult terrain. Chief Engineer PWD AK Abrol admits that forest clearance and the occasional reluctance of private landholders to part with land act as delays in such projects. Social and individual rights too have to be taken care of, says Superintendent Engineer Archana.

“If the road runs through water bodies, fields, house entrances or places of worship, we try to work out some arrangement to the satisfaction of both parties, but this takes time.”

Of the 17,449 inhabited villages in Himachal Pradesh, 7,356 are unconnected by motorable road (data up to March 31, 2016). The authorities are working overtime to meet the target of connecting all villages with motorable roads by 2019.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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