Cherla: CRPF builds ropeway for tribal settlements

Cherla: The 151 battalion of CRPF has built a ropeway across the Chintavagu river on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border to ensure connectivity to tribal settlements and for movement of troops. The Chintavagu river near Pamed is 18 km from Cherla mandal and the river remains in spate during June to January, leaving around 10,000 tribals from 35 settlements stranded in the forests. The tribals used to cross the river in country boats but sometimes it proved fatal. The area falls under the limits of the Naxal-affected Pamed police station in Usur block of Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. Since Pamed is located at a distance of 110 km from Bijapur, the tribals come to Cherla for their daily needs and depend on hospitals in Cherla for treatment. Recently, Chintavagu base camp and Dharmaram base camp have been set up on both sides of the river to deal with the Maoist threat and the troops also face difficulty in crossing the river during monsoon and remain cut off from the outside world. To solve this problem, CRPF (Chhattisgarh) Inspector General of Police Saket Kumar Singh initiated the ropeway project while CRPF Deputy Inspector General of Police Suneet Kumar Rai and CRPF 151 Battalion Commandant Pradyuman Kumar monitored the works. The 200-metre long ropeway has been constructed by a team of 25 engineers of CRPF 151 battalion and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) unit. The work which started on May 2 under the command of ITBP Assistant Commandant Prem Kumar was completed on a war footing on June 4. The ropeway carrier can carry four persons at a time. The construction of a bridge over Chintavagu was started two years ago to ensure permanent connectivity to tribal villages. But it is still not completed as Maoists are creating unrest to stop the construction of the bridge. Ayodhya Singh, second-in-command of the CRPF 151 battalion, who inaugurated the ropeway recently, said villagers can cross the river for their daily chores and come back even during the rainy season.