Ropar, July 6 —As heavy rains batter Himachal Pradesh, the Swan River surged through Punjab’s Ropar district on Saturday, washing away a temporary bridge at Algran village and severing road connectivity for nearly 100 villages in the region.
The makeshift structure, built across the riverbed to connect local residents to the Anandpur Sahib-Garhshankar road, was completely swept away. Locals are now forced to take a 50-kilometre detour through Nangal to reach Ropar and Anandpur Sahib.
“As soon as the river swells, this temporary bridge is the first to go,” said Kuldeep, a local farmer who was among dozens who gathered at the collapsed site. “Students heading to college in Anandpur Sahib now have to endure an extra 50 km. This happens every monsoon.”
The permanent bridge over the Swan has remained unusable since July 2023, when it was damaged and closed to traffic. Its foundation pillars now lie exposed in the swollen riverbed. Residents allege illegal sand mining is largely to blame for the structural damage, claiming it weakened the bridge’s base and caused its eventual collapse.
“Illegal mining has hollowed out the riverbanks,” said another local resident. “We’ve been raising our voice for years, but the authorities have done little beyond making promises.”
The temporary bridge was serving as a vital link for dozens of villages until the Swan — swollen by upstream rains — overwhelmed it. Although the river has never breached its banks in this stretch, locals remain on edge every monsoon, fearing flash floods could inundate their homes and fields.
The Public Works Department (PWD) has floated a ₹17-crore tender to repair the permanent bridge. However, sources say the reconstruction work is expected to begin only after the monsoon season ends.
Meanwhile, the drainage department is constructing embankments in a bid to shield the remaining infrastructure from further monsoon damage.
Illegal mining continues to pose a wider threat across the Anandpur Sahib Assembly constituency. According to sources, similar degradation has also impacted the pillars of a separate bridge over the Sutlej River.
Once dubbed the “Sorrow of Una” for its destructive floods in Himachal Pradesh, the Swan River is now wreaking havoc in Punjab. While the Himachal government has successfully channelled the river within its territory, the remaining 40-km stretch that flows through Punjab before joining the Sutlej remains unregulated. During monsoons, this unchannelled stretch often unleashes flash floods that destroy fields and roads across Nangal and Anandpur Sahib subdivisions in Ropar.
Locals say that until permanent and properly engineered solutions are implemented — including timely repair of damaged bridges and strict action against illegal mining — the region will remain at the mercy of the river every monsoon.
