By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The effort to ease water crisis in the city has turned out to be a nightmare for the residents of the city.
In order to ensure better water supply, the entire city’s roads are dug out. The ripped roadsides, in some cases the middle have been ripped off to create furrows for laying water pipes, have become a deathtrap for the residents of the city.
The condition of the road near the Circuit House junction is deplorable. The road that leads to Last Stop has been dug out right on the middle causing inconvenience. “Why can’t they dig out the roadsides instead of the middle? There is no space for pedestrian as the footpath type lane is not good enough for one way traffic now,” fumed a resident from this area.
The Amarnath Bhattacharjee road connecting Last Stop with KOR (Kench’s Trace, Oxford, Rilbong) is full of potholes.
Cars on this road move in zigzag fashion in order to avoid the big potholes creating danger for the people on the road.
The overflowing drain water which damaged the road calls for immediate repairing. “I wonder how much more should be the size of these potholes before the authorities notice them and starts repairing,” said an elderly person of Kench’s Trace.
The old fire brigade junction in Laban has also turned into an accident prone area with the ongoing works leaving the roads in total mess.
Another nightmarish road is the Khlieh Iewduh. Though the former Governor had provided the much needed bitumen topping during the last President rule, the indecisiveness over the jurisdiction of this road is a cause of concern.
This road which is frequently used by the consumers and trucks loaded with goods, should have been in good shape.
Meanwhile, a senior government official in charge of PHE said that the PHE department is not laying the pipes in Laban areas.
“The pipes which are being laid are of the Military Engineering Service (MES). The Shillong Cantonment Board (SCB) has a water supply scheme on the lower side of the Shillong Peak,” a senior government official said.