New Delhi: Work on the Rs.450 crore Jowai-Ratacherra road linking Silchar and beyond in Assam will start from next month, Central sources said on Thursday.
The 102 km road has been allotted to JM Infra Company which will start the work for the vital link next month, the sources said. The two lane road, now in a deplorable condition, will be relayed for all weather traffic since it part of the NH 44, the sources added.
NH connects Shillong with Sabroom, near India-Bangladesh border in Tripura. It runs for a distance of 630 km in the states of Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura. NH 44 is also the only national highway that links Tripura’s capital Agartala with the rest of the Seven Sister states.
Jowai is an important business and education hub of the entire district catering to students from all over the district as well as the adjacent parts of Assam and Bangladesh which will immensely benefit from the upgraded road. There will be two toll plazas on the renovated road, the sources added.
NH 44 has become a highway of woes for hundreds of passengers and drivers of the vehicles who have to take to this vital connectivity for their movement as it links Barak Valley, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura with Guwahati. The condition of the road at Sonapur area in East Jaintia Hills is pathetic.
Due to the ever worsening condition of the road especially at Sonapur area, there has been unprecedented traffic jam in this section recently. Passengers who had recently travelled via this highway said that half of the road at land slide prone Sonapur has been damaged and the portion has now turned out to be one way.
The situation has become so that on both sides of the landslide zone vehicles and passengers have been stranded as only one vehicle is allowed to pass through it. The trouble is compounded by the fact that the affected zone is in the hilly areas without any amenity or facility for food or water or lodging.
Around 3,000 vehicles ply through this arterial highway with men and goods. The disruption in their movement even for a day has its effect on normal life and economy of the regions concerned.
