NHAI seeks more land to tackle landslides

SHILLONG: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), which implemented the Umiam-Jorabat four lane expressway project, requires 2.82 hectares of land for slope stabilisation to address the problem of landslides along the road.
The NHAI long time back had asked the Ri Bhoi district administration for the additional land, but the latter is yet to oblige.
The NHAI needs the 2.82 hectares of land spread over 15 points along the road. It may be mentioned that there have been a few instances of landslides along the road during the monsoon, but over the years the number of such incidents has gone down.
Sources said that the roads were stable now and there should not be any problem of landslides.
The NHAI is also supposed to construct foot bridges in five different locations over the road including two in Umsning and one each in Byrnihat, Umling and Nongpoh.
The NHAI will ask local contractors through bidding to construct the foot bridges, the sources said adding the agency cannot call for tendering at the moment due to the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections being in place.
The locations of the foot bridges have been finalised in consultation with the Deputy Commissioner.