Tura, April 25: Construction of A PMGSY road, being undertaken by a contractor from Guwahati, has come under severe criticism after black topping of the road was dug out with bare hands only a few days after the section of the road had been completed.
The project in question was sanctioned in the year 2019.
The more than 16 km PMGSY road is being constructed by contractor, M P Agarwala and has been in the making for years now. The complaints too have been as old. The upcoming road will connect Karukol to Emangre while also connecting villages like Mindikgre, Gora Samka, Nokatgre and Nengkong.
Earlier in 2020, a video of the same road went viral on social media after residents were able to literally dig out the black topping a day after the section was completed, using only their hands. Last week too, another video of the same road surfaced where concerned residents were able to remove the black topping of the road again with just their bare hands.
As per the NGOs who had raised the issue of the poor work quality, at least 5 such complaints have been made to the district authorities including the PWD. However despite their objections, the situation has remained the same and quality remains poor.
“We can’t understand as to why the contractor is not being pulled up in this case as he has made an extremely poor road. Is the district administration and the PWD blind to the situation or is something else at play here? We have lived with bad roads but now when we are close to getting a good one, we will not allow such callousness,” said social activist and resident of Mindikgre, Greneth Sangma.
Meanwhile, clarifying on the allegations of poor construction, the executive engineer of SGH – PWD, S Kurbah stated that it was only in some stretches that the construction was poor. Overall, however, he informed the road was coming up properly.
“The contractor is working on the entire stretch and we have to excuse a few stretches of bad construction. In such cases, he has been instructed to immediately repair the stretch. The road is still under construction. Further he also has a 5 year maintenance contract so he has to ensure the road remains good for at least 5 years after its handover,” said Kurbah.
The EE added that site visits by his team were being undertaken on a monthly basis to ensure quality compliance. Further third party inspection is also being taken up regularly as has been informed by the EE.
The NGOs, however, did not buy into the explanation of only some stretches being poor but mentioned that the entire road was poorly constructed.
IANS