GUWAHATI: Incessant rain over the past three days have triggered floods in a border area, damaging a concrete culvert on a road linking Sakhati in Assam’s Kamrup district and Thangkhula in West Khasi Hills of Meghalaya and snapping communication between the two states.
According to residents, villagers of as many as 35 hamlets along the 20-odd km road (linked to NH-17) have been affected as the road link snapped after the culvert could not withstand the strong water current of the swelling Singra river and broke in the wee hours of Saturday.
“Villagers of 15 hamlets, in particular, have been adversely affected as traders, school and college students and commuters between Sakhati (a revenue village in Boko constituency) and Thangkhula in Meghalaya have been stranded. The authorities had about a month back (when the link was snapped) promised to build a box culvert during the dry season but nothing has been done so far,” a resident rued.
Apart from affecting communication and causing hardships to people, the rain-triggered deluge submerged acres of farmlands in the area.
“An engineer and a contractor did visit the area today to take stock of the situation and assured to make temporary arrangements for resuming communication through the vital road link by tomorrow,” he said.