The monsoon has just
begun but the National Highway 44 beginning from Jingkieng Nongthymmai onwards to Jowai is in a mess.
At Nongthymmai, just opposite the Police Station, the road has caved in making it dangerous for heavily loaded trucks.
The fear of capsizing has made the truck drivers, manoeuvre with extra caution thereby causing traffic jams. That is one of the consequences of bad roads. It slows down traffic.
This stretch of road was repaired only last year when The Shillong Times had repeatedly drawn the attention of the State PWD to the dilapidated road condition.
Everyone questions whether all roads repaired by the PWD out of the public exchequer is meant to last only one year or lesser. “Does the PWD not know how to make roads in rainy and hilly terrains?” they question. Still others want to know the name of the contractor allotted the work and whether he/she would be penalised.
Someone even suggested that civil society should institute an award called the “Ignoble Award of the Year” (an anti-thesis of the Nobel Prize) and present it to the State PWD Minister and his team. Not a bad idea this!