NH-44 witnesses nightmarish traffic jam
From Our Correspondent
JOWAI: The National Highway 44 (Jowa-Badarpur road) continues to witness gridlocks of vehicular traffic causing terrible inconvenience to thousands of commuters.
Heavy traffic jam hit a section of the National highway NH-44, which is the lifeline of several northeastern states, for several hours on Monday and Tuesday affecting free-flow of vehicular movement.
Thousands of vehicles were seen stranded from Mihmyntdu till Ladrymbai.
Commuters spent the whole night inside their vehicles without food or water. The queues at one point of time stretched to around three to four kilometers resulting in serious worry for the commuters.
Two Bazar buses of the Sein Beh Iaw Cooperative Society, Jowai which started their journey from Sohkymphor market on Monday evening reached Jowai on Tuesday afternoon.
A JHADC MDC, who was on his way from Jowai to Wapung on Monday evening, reached his destination on Tuesday morning.
Police personnel posted at Jowai, Phramer and Ladrymbai had to slog for 24 hours to ease the traffic congestion. Members of Village Defense Parties (VDPs) of some villages offered a helping hand to cops overseeing the clearing work.
Local people blamed it on the weighbridges of the Transport department for this nightmarish traffic jam.
“Thousands of vehicles ply on the road everyday and the road is very small and when a vehicle overtakes another vehicle a traffic jam occurs”, he added.
The Jaintia Hills Additional SP Lakador Syiem said the traffic jam is a result of indifferent attitude of truckers.
Shortage of man power is adding to the woes of the Police department, sources said adding that the department in the past had on several occasions requested the government to increase the manpower, but the government is yet respond to it.