Aug. 27: Aditi Purakayatha, a 40-year-old government official, virtually runs through her morning chores, skips breakfast and leaves home for office at least an hour earlier than she used to even four months ago. The entire hassle is the fallout of a broken, potholed road.Bumpy ride: The potholed Sonai Road
“An exhibition of craters” — that’s what residents have taken to calling the stretch that connects Aditi’s neighbourhood on Sonai Road to her office on Club Road.
The 2.5km stretch that connects Club Road with Sonai Road via Central Road, Nazirpatty and Premtala, also links National Highways 53 and 54 on the western and southern fringes of the town.
Once a showpiece road, it is now a slushy waterlogged stretch with choked drains, ill-constructed culverts and encroachments.
On most days, Aditi bravely decides to negotiate the stretch even if that means getting stuck for hours in traffic that crawls through the potholed road.
When she is in a tearing hurry, she takes a detour of a few kilometres, though it means spending that much more on fare.
But not everyone can deal with this daily hassle with Aditi’s stoicism.
Last Thursday, hundreds of exasperated residents blocked Sonai Road, which opens on National Highway 54 and leads to Mizoram, demanding that the link road be repaired immediately.
Deputy commissio-ner Goutam Ganguli sent a delegation of officers to pacify the protesters, who refused to climb down from their demand that repairs should begin within a fortnight.
What irked the residents most was the fact that the road has been renovated three times since 1996, when the national highway division of the PWD bagged the contract from the Union government’s transport and national highways ministry to maintain it.
Each time, the repairs cost Rs 4.5 crore, but it took only a few weeks for the road to be back in bad shape.
The commander of the 36 wing of the BRTF under the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), P. Cherian, said one of primary reasons why the repairs did not last, is that road is bow-shaped and collects rainwater easily.
Though the residents have been threatening to intensify their agitation if the road was not repaired immediately, Anjan Chanda, an executive engineer of the PWD’s national highway division, doubts if repairs, which will cost Rs 5.6 crore, should be taken up during the monsoons. source: telegraph india
“An exhibition of craters” — that’s what residents have taken to calling the stretch that connects Aditi’s neighbourhood on Sonai Road to her office on Club Road.
The 2.5km stretch that connects Club Road with Sonai Road via Central Road, Nazirpatty and Premtala, also links National Highways 53 and 54 on the western and southern fringes of the town.
Once a showpiece road, it is now a slushy waterlogged stretch with choked drains, ill-constructed culverts and encroachments.
On most days, Aditi bravely decides to negotiate the stretch even if that means getting stuck for hours in traffic that crawls through the potholed road.
When she is in a tearing hurry, she takes a detour of a few kilometres, though it means spending that much more on fare.
But not everyone can deal with this daily hassle with Aditi’s stoicism.
Last Thursday, hundreds of exasperated residents blocked Sonai Road, which opens on National Highway 54 and leads to Mizoram, demanding that the link road be repaired immediately.
Deputy commissio-ner Goutam Ganguli sent a delegation of officers to pacify the protesters, who refused to climb down from their demand that repairs should begin within a fortnight.
What irked the residents most was the fact that the road has been renovated three times since 1996, when the national highway division of the PWD bagged the contract from the Union government’s transport and national highways ministry to maintain it.
Each time, the repairs cost Rs 4.5 crore, but it took only a few weeks for the road to be back in bad shape.
The commander of the 36 wing of the BRTF under the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), P. Cherian, said one of primary reasons why the repairs did not last, is that road is bow-shaped and collects rainwater easily.
Though the residents have been threatening to intensify their agitation if the road was not repaired immediately, Anjan Chanda, an executive engineer of the PWD’s national highway division, doubts if repairs, which will cost Rs 5.6 crore, should be taken up during the monsoons. source: telegraph india
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