Watch towers set up at Mandarmani beach

Watch towers have been set up at Mandarmani to ensure that no vehicle can ply on the solid but wet sand beach. This is one of the several steps taken up by the district authorities after three youth were killed when a Ford Eco Sport collided head on with a BMW on the beach on Sunday.

The district authorities and Digha Shankarpur Development Authority had sealed all the openings which were used by vehicles to enter the beach. As a result, plying of vehicles has completely stopped.

But this has come up as a cause of inconvenience for both tourists and some local residents. The reason being they need to walk a few kilometres on the beach to reach to their hotels or their hamlets on the sea shore.

According to the district authorities many tourists, interestingly, appreciated the restriction imposed on plying of vehicles on the beach.

According to those tourists, people earlier used to visit Mandarmani to watch red crabs. But with plying  of vehicles on beach, they are not found anymore. It is expected that the ecological balance will get maintained from now on as stringent steps were taken.

It is learnt that the district authorities have taken initiatives to construct a channel road for both the villagers and tourists. The decision to construct the temporary road has been taken to help the tourists.

The problem of reaching the hotels and the villages will get solved with construction of the marine drive from Digha to Mandarmani. Construction of only 300 metre of the road is left and it had got stuck following a dispute.

Sisir Adhikari, DSDA chairman, had assured that the marine drive would be opened before the Puja.

Reshmi Kamal, District Magistrate, said besides posting policemen on road, watch towers were also being set up to keep a constant vigil so that no untoward incident take place.