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A decade ago on June 28, 2008, 37 specially trained policemen of Andhra Pradesh’s anti-Maoist Greyhound force became target practice for Maoists while they crossed the Balimela reservoir in Malkangiri district of Odisha on a ferry.They were all killed in a gutsy ambush by Maoists, who were well equipped and tactically positioned on the forested hills around the reservoir. They strafed the boat until it sank.Soon, Balimela made it to national headlines and India’s soft underbelly was exposed.What stuck out was that one of fastest growing economies of the world had failed in connecting 151 villages, which were cut off from the mainland due to a hydel project in 1972. A half-hearted attempt was made in 1982 when the Odisha government planned for a ‘hanging bridge’ at a cost of Rs 7 crore. But government lethargy resulted in the project never taking off.Gradually, these 151 villages, cut off by a reservoir in the Chitrakonda forest area , drifted away from the political mainstream into the lap of the Maoists. “The Andhra Maoists found here the perfect refuge, which they declared as a liberated zone,” a security official told ET.By 2008 when the greyhounds were killed, no one wanted the bridge any longer. The indications were there in 2005 itself when Gammon India tried its hand in building the bridge but withdrew after Maoist threats and an explosion.The Maoists always revelled in geographical isolation and the locals had got accustomed to it. The Naveen Patnaik government went pillar to post, requesting the home ministry and other agencies to execute it under schemes for LWE affected areas, but no concrete plan could emerge. It was considered simply too risky.The state, however, dug its heels and decided to go it alone. And finally, a decade after the greyhounds incident, the task was accomplished and a bridge called the Gurupriya bridge is now ready for inauguration.But what was estimated at Rs 7 cr in 1982 has been constructed at a cost of Rs 172.5 cr by Kolkata-based Royal Infraconstru Ltd.But in the end, it was done with 38 flood lamps fixed under the bridge to keep a watch on any activity in the river. CCTV with night vision cameras have been installed and linked to surrounding BSF camps.Unwilling to take any chances, the government has had Central Road Research Institute carry out a third party audit of the bridge.Even as the final touches are being given, Maoists threats have surfaced. “We may still see landmine explosions and the occasional killing in the name of police informers but the Gurupriya shows that the battle is won. It has boosted the confidence of the state, its machinery and its people,” said a senior official of the state asking not to be named.Traffic was more than a trickle when ET visited the bridge a couple of weeks ago. A young mother is headed to Chitrakonda for an Aadhaar card for the baby she is breastfeeding.Narsingh Sinderi just returned from the market – what normally took him the whole day was done in two hours.Baidehi Khinchei is off to drop her boys at a hostel at Kudumuluguma. A visit to the doctor, bank or anything involving the state administration would normally take days. “Our shopping, our bank, our tehsil, our block everything is across the river at Chitrakonda. If after the bridge we still need to go there then what’s the point of the bridge,” says Sinderi hopeful bridge will bring roads, healthcare and education to their doorsteps.“In rainy weather like this it would be inhuman to take the boat instead. We did build the bridge for them after all,” says Laxmi Narayan Muduli, inspector-in-charge of the Papermetla station.The next challenge will be to lay roads to gram panchayats, including to Maoist safe havens like Jodamba, Andrapalli or Panasput.Malkangiri SP Jagmohan Meena believes the state is up for the task. In May, Meena along with police housing engineers, and a revenue inspector accompanied a BSF company identified a location and established a new camp overnight at Jantapai, 7km from Badpada. Once a few units are built, the police station can mover closer to Papermetla village, says Meena.Meanwhile the BSF men operating out of tents have offered villagers the use of their Aquaguard water purifier, their ambulance, their medicine supplies. “It is cut-off because the administration doesn’t reach these people. We hope the bridge will held bridge that critical gap,” says a BSF officer.If 2008 was a statement of defiance by the Maoists, then the bridge is an assertion of authority by the state, which was guilty of having turned a blind eye in the first place.