Western Odisha is a part where there are several unknown villages and submerged temples. When it comes to Western Odisha most of the people from other parts of India are aware of Hirakud Dam but to date, our western Odisha hides beautiful and incredible stories in its villages.
Rampela bridge is one of these beautiful spot of Western Odisha. It is known as the longest bridge of our western Odisha, which is about 2.5 km long. The localite also called this bridge as Sapne bridge. This bridge connects the Rengali block in Sambalpur with the Lakhanpur block in Jharsuguda running over the river IB, a tributary of the Mahanadi river. This river is also considered a part of Hirakud Dam.
It reduces travel time considerably between these two places, after a long wait and a pending demand of the people of both the districts. This bridge was constructed in the year 2018 and Odisha CM Naveen Pattnaik dedicated this 2.5 km long Sapne Bridge. This bridge has been constructed with a whopping budget of Rs. 117.5 Crore. It connects the Sapne village under Salat Panchayat in Sambalpur district with Talabarna village under Rampela Panchayat in Jharsuguda district.
Till date, Rampela village was an unknown place, because, in the year 1956 when Hirakud Dam has constructed on the river Mahanadi, the entire village has been submerged in the water. At that time, Rampela was considered as a Gada which constituted 42 mouza, as many as 200 villages.
In 1957, after the dam constructed, around 200 Hindu temples submerged in the river Mahanadi. Out of 200, 150 temples were unreachable only 50 Hindu temples are visible during the summer season. The most ancient and vibrant of temples in North-Western Odisha is underwater. The Hirakud Reservoir, which spans about 83,400 sq km, built a few years after Independence, is believed to have submerged about 2500 towns and villages and displaced more than 1,50,000 families and the irony is exact numbers are still unknown.
Out of the 200 submerged temples, Maa Maheswari temple is one of them. The Maheswari temple is clearly visible from the rampela bridge during the summer season. Our temples were lost, along with our identity and cultural roots. A few domes are visible during summer when the water level is down. As things currently stand, the majority of temples might have already been destroyed.
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