The bridge on the river Magai

GHAZIPUR: Human will is often the bridge to join the banks of impossibilities. It is more evident than ever at Kyampur Chhavni village of Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, where locals have crowdfunded and begun building a bridge on a tiny river that has long stood between them and the rest of the world. While the district administration says the villagers were impatient and should have instead waited for some more time, the locals maintain that they waited for at least 58 years.



The Magai, a small river in eastern Uttar Pradesh, originates in Azamgarh’s Dubawan village, flows through Mau and Ghazipur districts for over 200 km, before eventually joining the Tamsa river, which then merges into the Ganga near Ballia.

Barely 70 feet wide, the river without any bridge has had a telling impact on the destiny of a large population on either side of its banks in Ghazipur. While Kyampur village, with a population of 3,500, situated right next to the river, faced it worse, around 50 villages with over 70,000 population on both sides of the river had to take a detour of 40 km to cover an actual distance of less than 10 km to reach the dist headquarters.



Boats ferrying kids to their schools on the other side of the river have capsized in the past. Kyampur and residents of over 20 villages risk their lives to cross the river daily in ramshackle boats to avoid travelling around 15 km on a bumpy road to reach Nonahara market, which is three km away from the district headquarters and district hospital. “Travelling 30-45 km becomes a compulsion if we opt for other routes to reach Nonahara or the district headquarters via Mohammadabad,” said a local.



The winds of change began to blow in June 2022, when the then gram pradhan of Kyampur Shashi Kala Upadhyay with the help of Manoj Gupta, the block pramukh of Kasimabad, started work on an embankment along the river with provisions for a future vehicular bridge. However, the project, undertaken under MGNREGS, encountered administrative hurdles and stopped midway.

Then it so happened that in Jan 2024 Captain (retired) Ravindra Yadav , a civil engineer with 55 Engineer Regiment of India Army’s Corps of Engineers, came to live in his ancestral house in Kyampur after his retirement.



“I served in the Army for three decades and assisted in building numerous bridges during my postings throughout the country, particularly in remote areas of Nagaland and Manipur. Post-retirement, I was disheartened to discover my ancestral village still lacking direct connectivity to the district headquarters. Hence, I decided to build a bridge, and fortunately received tremendous support from villagers and influential individuals, including architects and bridge engineers I met during my service,” said Ravindra, who also served in the border road organization (BRO) for three years. He donated Rs 10 lakh from his retirement funds to the cause and also offered his technical expertise to help build the bridge.

Ravindra’s elder brother Kalika Yadav said, “His gesture not only revolutionised the sentiments but also built confidence among the locals.” Ram Naresh Rajbhar , one of the village elders, said, “People chipped in with whatever little they could. Contributions as small as Rs 100 poured in. Those who had no money offered in kind – cement, sand, steel rebars, etc. Others of fered to work on the bridge after finishing their day jobs.”

Ravindra readied the design for a 105-foot bridge on the river and the project was ready for a reboot.

Accepting his invitation, Allahabad high court’s Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav visited the village for the bridge’s ground-breaking ceremony on February 25, 2024. In his short speech, Justice Yadav profusely praised the efforts and spirit of local residents to do the unthinkable.

“So far apart from constructing retaining walls on both the banks, four pillars have been erected. At present, slabbing between Brahm Baba temple bank and the first pair of pillars is in progress. We have spent around Rs 65 lakh thus far and need Rs 30 lakh more to complete remaining girder and slab works as well as the slope up to the approach road,” said Kalika who maintains the accounts of contributions and expenses.


The villagers’ efforts were also noticed by Mohammadabad MLA Suhaib Ansari , who donated Rs 1 lakh along with high-mast lights to illuminate the construction site for late-night work. Speaking to TOI, MLA Ansari said, “When my father Sibgatullah Ansari was MLA (2012-17), he had forwarded the bridge construction file to the state government, and upon becoming MLA in 2022, I raised this issue in my inau gural speech requesting immediate funds. I reiterated this requirement during the 2023 budget session.” The villagers aren’t convinced and blame their plight on a lack of political will in all these years.

“Since 1967, villagers had started demanding public representatives to ensure construction of a bridge on the Magai river. Before every parliamentary or assembly polls, they used to send junior engineers or other officials with measurement machines to befool us. After being voted to power, the promises of building the bridge were conveniently forgotten,” said Kalika Yadav.

The Mohammadabad seat, a stronghold of Ansari brothers, was represented in the Assembly by Afzal Ansari from 1985 to 1996. BJP’s Krishnanand Rai won this seat in 2002 but he was killed in 2004. His widow Alka Rai won in 2006 while Afzal’s brother Sibgatullah Ansari claimed the seat in 2007 and 2012. Alka wrested the seat from Ansaris in 2017. But Sibgatullah’s son Suhaib Ansai snatched it back from her, in 2022.

Kyampur village is adjacent to Mohanpurva , the ancestral village of J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, who won the Ghazipur parliamentary seat multiple times, although the Mohammadabad assembly segment is part of Ballia parliamentary constituency. The district administration has also taken note of the under-construction bridge.

District magistrate Aryka Akhauri said, “The experts from PWD and UP Bridge Corporation have been assigned the task to check the structures built by villagers to see quality standards as well as load capacity that it will be able to bear.” As neither any technical committee and experts are involved nor any prior permission was sought for it, people involved in constructing the bridge have been asked to halt the work till the structures are examined, she said, mentioning how checking its strength is a must for public safety.

“In view of their long pending demand, we had requested the work plan from departments concerned in October 2024. It was forwarded to the state government and might be taken up for approval soon,” the DM said. But the villagers aren’t up for waiting any more. As the dusk descends on the village and cows come home every evening, they get ready with their shovels, spades and resolve to build their own bridge on the river Magai.