MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
but in 1898 Government had no money to spare and the present policy1[1] is to complete first the other ghát between Náráyanapatnam and Lakshmipur referred to below.
The Pottangi ghát, the next to the north after the Anantagiri road, starts at Ittikavalasa, five miles from Sálúr, and runs to Pottangi on the 3,000 feet plateau, across this plateau to Koraput, and thence down to Jeypore. It is metalled and bridged throughout, is in charge of the Public Works department, and is the only cart-road from the plains to the Jeypore country.
From Ittikavalasa it rises sharply, with a gradient of about 1 in 17, for four miles; and then for five miles runs along an almost level trace to the picturesque bungalow in the feverish Sunki valley at the ninth mile. Thence for ten miles 'it keeps steadily up, at gradients varving from 1 in 16 to 1 in 20 with intervals of almost level ground, past Rállugedda, to the head of the ghát at the nineteenth mile; whence it descends, between 1 in 19 and 1 in 21, four miles to the wide valley of Pottangi, where there is another bungalow near the twenty-third mile. All this section runs through sparsely wooded and waterless hills, and the only places where water is obtainable in the hot weather are Sunki and Rállugedda. From Pottangi to Koraput the road undulates gently over red soil plains dotted with numerous small hills, and the country gets barer of vegetation every mile until at Koraput there is scarcely a forest tree to be seen in any direction. The stages are, Doliamba bungalow, thirty-third mile; Sembliguda bungalow, thirty-sixth mile (whence roads run north to Lakshmipur and south to Nandapuram); and Koraput, the head-quarters of the Divisional Officer and Superintendent of Police, fiftieth mile. Thence the road climbs sharply out of the hollow in which Koraput lies, and then descends over rather steep undulations to 58 miles 3 furlongs, at which point the beautiful ghát down to Jeypore, which runs through forest throughout, begins. This is on a gradient of 1 in 20, and ends at the sixtyfirst mile, whence the run in to Jeypore is two miles of level.
The construction of the section on the plateau was begun by Lieutenant Smith in 1866-67, and in 1869 it was definitely decided that the main route to Jeypore must follow this line. At the two gháts at each end, however, several experiments were made before the existing routes were finally fixed upon. At the Pottangi end a bullock-track from Sunki to Páchipenta was first improved and by 1873 Mr. H. G. Turner, then Special Assistant
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- ↑ 1 G.O., No. 1540, Judicial, dated 16th October 1903, page 5.
