SHILLONG: Meghalaya’s PWD Minister, Prestone Tynsong said the state government was not aware that quality of road construction in the state was sub-standard and therefore, required frequent repairs.
The Minister was replying to questions of MLA from North Shillong Adelbert Nongrum on the construction of road in the state during the question hour in the Assembly session on Tuesday.
Replying to a query by Nongrum on frequent repair which may be due to sub-standard road quality or failure of contractor, Tynsong pointed to the peculiar situation in the state resulting from rainy season which results in road damage.
“PWD department is trying its best to take care of this. Repair works are going on throughout the state depending on availability of fund,” he said.
Pointing to the danger of potholes in footpaths by Nongrum, Tynsong said he would take up the matter if the footpaths were under the PWD as usually the footpath works were taken up by the Urban Affairs Department and Shillong Municipal Board.
To a query raised by Congress MLA, Charles Pyngrope, Tynsong said the department followed the IRS specification which does not specify the period the road could last.
“We are trying our best to maintain and strictly adhere to the specifications laid down so the repairing does not occur every now and then,” Tynsong said.
Referring to a query on the trucks carrying load beyond 9 MT by Congress MLA Mayralborn Syiem, Tynsong said there were problems especially in mining areas.
“We will review the whole issue with the department and identify places where traffic is increasing before preparing estimate and will try to cope up with the frequent problem,” he said.
The PWD minister said the department had German technology and are assessing which one was the best to reduce maintenance of road and reduce expenditure and work out possibilities to come out with positive response.
“PWD department will try the best. As for construction or repair, we would like to see the road lasts even 50 years also,” he said.
As for the potholes in PMGSY road brought out by Congress MLA, Azad Zaman to which Tynsong said the matter would be examined.
UDP MLA, Nujorki Sungoh said rural roads were being neglected as the Nartiang road and asserted that no single proper repair work had been done on the road for the last 30 years and asked the department to take rural road sector into its consideration.