As the Centre waits for Pakistan’s official acceptance to set up rehabilitation and relief camps at three points along the Line of Control (LoC), the Army is planning to construct a floating bridge on river Neelam that divides the LoC in Teetwal sector.Sources said the 60-metre bridge will connect Teetwal with Chilyani in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Both villages have suffered heavy causalities in the quake. But the devastation is much higher on the other side of the LoC.The engineering wing of Army has been assigned the task of constructing the bridge. Sources said the construction material has already been ferried to Teetwal.The PRO Army, Lt Col V K Batra, said the work will start the moment acceptance of the Indian proposal is received from the Pakistani government.‘‘All preparations are underway for providing smooth relief to the people both at Kaman and Teetwal,’’ Batra said, ‘‘we have also cleared the debris in 36 landslides on Teetwal-Tanghdar road.’’The absence of a bridge on the river Neelam at Teetwal was proving a big hurdle for setting up of a relief and rehabilitation camp for the quake-affected villagers in PoK.‘‘Apart from a floating bridge, we are also considering the use of motor boats between Chilyani and Teetwal to help the affected villagers,’’ said an officer monitoring the work. ‘‘We have also dumped relief material for quake victims of PoK at Kaman and Teetwal,’’ he added.The Army has worked overnight to open the Teetwal-Tanghdar road that got blocked after the quake triggered landslides. The road is now open for small vehicles.A similar problem persists in Uri sector. A 4-kilometre stretch of the Srinagar-Muzuffarabad road from Red Bridge to Kaman post is still buried following landslides. It is going to take another month to clear the road.‘‘We will be using mule tracks to ferry relief material towards Kaman post to set up a relief camp,’’ said an officer, ‘‘We are ready to set up the camp in Uri’’. On Saturday, the government had suggested setting up of relief and rehabilitation camps at Kaman (near Aman Setu, Uri), Teetwal (Tanghdar) and Chakan da Bagh (Poonch) on the LoC. Also, relatives of divided families can use the spots as meeting points.
