Special Correspondent
SILCHAR, Sept 30: The 120 mt. long and 8 mt wide tunnel built at cost of Rs 117 crore by project Setuk of Border Road Organization, said a BRTF engineer, will help maintain road connectivity on NH 44 that links Asom, Meghalaya, Barak Valley, Mizoram and Tripura without any disruption. It would keep the busiest highway free from landslides and ensure smooth flow of traffic, he pointed out. This tunnel built in 9 month time was inaugurated by Sontosh Mohan Dev, Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, and M M Raju, Union Minister of State for Defence on Monday.
Question is being raised in competent circles, “ Will the tunnel make the highway at Sonapur trouble free?”
There have been many mishaps on the Sonapur disturbed zone in Meghalaya, 110 km from here. Memory is still fresh of stranded passengers who saw how a Mizoram state transport corporation bus and two loaded trucks coming from Shillong direction had a miraculous escape.
Before the bus and the trucks could slide down and sink in slush and mud, the passengers, the drivers and their assistants managed to get out of vehicles.
Most tragic was the killing of 7 persons of a private passenger bus which in heavy downpours skidded in the slush on the spot and rolled down the near by river Lubha. Series of landslides in the past and even in 2007 blocked the highway for a month.
Many factors have been attributed to landslides by experts. High hills a Sonapur have become loose due to frequent blasts by BRTF. The bed of Lubha river, meandering through the disturbed zone has risen by 30 ft.
The sloughing river is causing deep seepages inside, making the landmass unstable. More than a decade ago, BRTF was faced with the problem of sinking land mass which could be stabilized by raising retention wall and plugging landslips.
But, the way debris from landslides is dumped in Lubha has not only further led to rise in river bed but also obstructing its downward flow, causing backlash. This is destabilsing the area and aggravating landslips. More than 300 mt of highway at Sonapur, the highly active landslide prone area as a precaution notice of BRTF indicates, are badly affected. The tunnel covers 110 mt, leaving 190 mt of highway exposed to the vagaries of nature.
In order to bypass the Sonapur zone, BRTF once decided for realignment in consultation with the Border Road Research Institute and Geological Survey of India. The Task Fore adopted jute-geotechnology to stabilize the area which helped vegetations and planted saplings to grow, but it failed to solve the trouble.
Besides, ring wall was raised along the hills, channels and culverts laid down to flush out the gushing waters and debris of rocks, slush and mud down to river. A dam was also made on hill top to contain the on rushing waters in order to roll them down through chutes.
The entire landmass along Sonapur in Jaintia Hills has been identified by Geological Survey of India as “an area under a sort of tectonic movement” It was then suggested that the best option would be to change the alignment of the highway for which GSI did the survey. Another option was tunneling. Experts opined that realignment was the best option to avoid the landslide zone. The unstable landmass at Sonapur might play havoc with the tunnel itself. sourcE: sentinel assam
SILCHAR, Sept 30: The 120 mt. long and 8 mt wide tunnel built at cost of Rs 117 crore by project Setuk of Border Road Organization, said a BRTF engineer, will help maintain road connectivity on NH 44 that links Asom, Meghalaya, Barak Valley, Mizoram and Tripura without any disruption. It would keep the busiest highway free from landslides and ensure smooth flow of traffic, he pointed out. This tunnel built in 9 month time was inaugurated by Sontosh Mohan Dev, Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, and M M Raju, Union Minister of State for Defence on Monday.
Question is being raised in competent circles, “ Will the tunnel make the highway at Sonapur trouble free?”
There have been many mishaps on the Sonapur disturbed zone in Meghalaya, 110 km from here. Memory is still fresh of stranded passengers who saw how a Mizoram state transport corporation bus and two loaded trucks coming from Shillong direction had a miraculous escape.
Before the bus and the trucks could slide down and sink in slush and mud, the passengers, the drivers and their assistants managed to get out of vehicles.
Most tragic was the killing of 7 persons of a private passenger bus which in heavy downpours skidded in the slush on the spot and rolled down the near by river Lubha. Series of landslides in the past and even in 2007 blocked the highway for a month.
Many factors have been attributed to landslides by experts. High hills a Sonapur have become loose due to frequent blasts by BRTF. The bed of Lubha river, meandering through the disturbed zone has risen by 30 ft.
The sloughing river is causing deep seepages inside, making the landmass unstable. More than a decade ago, BRTF was faced with the problem of sinking land mass which could be stabilized by raising retention wall and plugging landslips.
But, the way debris from landslides is dumped in Lubha has not only further led to rise in river bed but also obstructing its downward flow, causing backlash. This is destabilsing the area and aggravating landslips. More than 300 mt of highway at Sonapur, the highly active landslide prone area as a precaution notice of BRTF indicates, are badly affected. The tunnel covers 110 mt, leaving 190 mt of highway exposed to the vagaries of nature.
In order to bypass the Sonapur zone, BRTF once decided for realignment in consultation with the Border Road Research Institute and Geological Survey of India. The Task Fore adopted jute-geotechnology to stabilize the area which helped vegetations and planted saplings to grow, but it failed to solve the trouble.
Besides, ring wall was raised along the hills, channels and culverts laid down to flush out the gushing waters and debris of rocks, slush and mud down to river. A dam was also made on hill top to contain the on rushing waters in order to roll them down through chutes.
The entire landmass along Sonapur in Jaintia Hills has been identified by Geological Survey of India as “an area under a sort of tectonic movement” It was then suggested that the best option would be to change the alignment of the highway for which GSI did the survey. Another option was tunneling. Experts opined that realignment was the best option to avoid the landslide zone. The unstable landmass at Sonapur might play havoc with the tunnel itself. sourcE: sentinel assam
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