SHILLONG: A PIL has been filed in the High Court of Meghalaya seeking reconstruction of the Agia-Medipara-Phulbari-Tura (AMPT) road.
The PIL has been filed by AH Hazarika, a practising advocate and associate member of H Nongrum and Associates, who has urged the court to direct the state government to reconstruct the AMPT road, which is also called NEC road, without further delay.
The PIL mentioned that the maintenance of the road is done through the PWD (Road) Department.
The road is there since pre-independence time and there are about 30-40,000 villages on both sides of the road covering a distance of about 175 km. It is the lifeline of the villagers and their agricultural produce is being transported through this road .
Hazarika said the condition of the AMPT road is so bad that vehicles can hardly ply 10-15 km per hour. It is stated that ambulance ferrying patients from the entire plain belt as well as hilly area found it extremely difficult to take the patients to good hospitals at Goalpara and Guwahati in Assam.
This can be attributed to the fact that many patients die before reaching the Hospitals due to the bad condition of the said road.
He added that when it rains, the road gets filled with puddles making it difficult for vehicles.
The petitioner also requested the High Court to constitute a committee under its supervision to monitor the condition of the road and may be send members of the committee to make for spot inquiry of the worst condition of the road and report back to the Court for further action in accordance with law.