New Bridge Construction

Amritapuri, India
August 28, 2005

When the tsunami hit on December 26^th, everyone from the surrounding villages rushed to Amritapuri, knowing it to be the only true place of refuge. Amma then directed everyone to be transported across the backwaters via boats.

On March 29^thwhen the government issued a warning of a possible second tsunami, the scene repeated itself. Because of the limited number of boats available and the fact that so many people depended on them to get across, it took more than three hours to transport everyone to the mainland. Fortunately, nothing happened, but since this incident, an urgent need for a more efficient way to transport people has surfaced.

In light of this, Amma envisioned building a footbridge to enable evacuation of the Alappad area within 30 minutes.

Today Swami Amritaswarupananda (Vice President, M. A. Math) laid the foundation stones for the new bridge. Extending from the jetty nearby, the bridge will be 100 meters long, five meters wide and seven meters high. The target date for completion is the first of March. Currently, Alappad is connected with the mainland via only one bridge, which is two kilometers from the southern tip of the penninsula. The government has started constructing another bridge at the northern end of Alappad. Alappad is 17.5 kilometers in length.

When this construction is complete, the bridge will connect Alappad to the mainland (an artist's rendition of the bridge is shown below)

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