'Mountain Man' of Bihar Dasarath Majhi dies at AIIMS

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) Dasarath Majhi, famous as the 'Mountain Man' of Bihar, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences this evening of Cancer.

He was 73.

Dashrath Manjhi, who had been admitted to AIIMS 15 to 20 days ago, was suffering from the carcinoma of the gall bladder, the medical name for cancer of the gall bladder.

''He was shifted to the ICU on August 15 after his condition deteriorated. The cancer had spread to other parts of his body.

The end came at 1800 hours today,''AIIMS medical superintendent D K Sharma said.

Dashrath Manjhi was born in 1934 in a poor labourer's family in Gahlour village near Gaya in Bihar. Being illiterate, there seemed little option left for him. He started working in the fields near a hill on one side of his village. To cross the mountain, one had to traverse a narrow and treacherous pass.

Manjhi came to be popularly known as Bihar's ''mountain man'' after he single-handedly carved out a 360-feet-long, 25-feet-high and 30-feet-wide passage through a mountain near Gehlore village in Gaya district.

He started the extraordinary task in 1967 when his wife got injured and they had to go round the mountain to reach the nearest hospital.

After he finished the epic project in 1988, he met several ministers and bureaucrats with a request to construct a metalled road through the mountain. However, his dream remains unfulfilled.

In June, Nitish Kumar gave a green signal to the project of road construction through the mountain, but the work is yet to start.

Majhi was shifted from the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PNMCH) to AIIMS after doctors attending on him said he needed better treatment.

UNI