TURA, Aug 20: A newly constructed road between the villages of Garobadha under South West Garo Hills (SWGH) and Selsella in West Garo Hills (WGH) has come under focus has begun to deteriorate after only about 3 months of completion after what the PWD department claimed was overloaded trucks moving through the route.
The project in question was undertaken by the Badri Rai and Company and falls under the Ampati PWD division.
While the road was world class just a few weeks ago, it has now become a third class one (no pun intended) all within the space of about 90 days due to trucks coming with loads that the road cannot bear.
The road between Garobadha via Selsella to Rajabala has been amongst the worst in the state with there literally being no drainage to speak of. Temporary repairs have been undertaken from time to time but once the monsoon sets in, the road gets from bad to worse.
The situation has been such that to cross the 30 km stretch between Garobadha to Rajabala, one requires close to an hour and a half.
Earlier the announcement of at least 15 km being upgraded was welcomed by the people residing in the area though the non-worked section is still a nightmare and requires at least 45 minutes to cross. However with the newly completed road already under duress, residents are now fearful that their peace in using the road will only be temporary.
While the first 5 km from the village of Gonglanggre near Garobadha is a joy to ride on despite the dangerous curves involved, one needs to just come close to the village of Boldoka for the deterioration process to begin. Large parts of the road have begun to unravel showing up the claims of world class infrastructure. Representatives of the company who were there on site to begin repair work were unwilling to talk when questioned on why the road has unraveled so quickly.
“It has not even been 3 months and the road has already begun to crack. We were happy with the completion earlier but now we are not so sure. Many sections are already damaged and the rest may go soon if something concrete is not thought of,” felt a local resident of Selsella when spoken to.
Prima facie, compacting of the road seems to have been underdone prior to its completion which may have led to the cracking.
However, when contacted, PWD officials from Ampati asserted that the deterioration was due to overloaded boulder trucks using the route despite them warning them against its use.
“When you check the transit pass issued by the forest department, it clearly states only 9 MT of load. In reality these trucks are coming with over 35-40 MT loads and this has already begun to damage the road. With there being no weigh bridge on the route, it is a free for all on these roads. These trucks have been using all possible roads to take these stones for export to Bangladesh,” informed a highly placed PWD official from Ampati.
Currently, repairs are being undertaken on those sections that have been damaged though if the word of the PWD official is right, the situation will not get better any time soon, especially with the overloaded trucks making life for locals extremely difficult.
