The daily line of traffic waiting to cross the Umiam Bridge now under repair is a cause of distress for many who are trying to catch a train or flight from Guwahati. Many have missed their flights in the recent past. For residents of Shillong city travelling out to Guwahati, taking the long route via the Shillong by-pass means burning more fuel and spending more money. What the daily commuters are wondering is why the army are not called in to provide a temporary Bailey Bridge to ease the present woes. The only humans that can cross the long line of traffic without awaiting their turn are the VIPs. This is precisely the reason why VIPs can never understand the woes and tribulations of ordinary citizens. At least where crossing the Umiam bridge is concerned there should be no VIP treatment. Let all vehicles await their turn. If the VIPs need to be at the airport or some meeting at a particular time, they should leave well ahead of time keeping in mind the slow crossing at Umiam. This might push them to speed up the construction work which in any case is proceeding at snail’s pace. Normally the work of repairing a bridge that caters to a huge vehicular population should have been carried out on a 24×7 mode where workers are deployed in batches. Anyone crossing the Umiam bridge will vouch for the fact that there are very few workers and if one is crossing that at 9 am there is no sign of the workers having started their work.
It is learnt that two tender were called by the MeECL for the repair work; one for grouting works (a specialised process that involves injecting a fluid-like material into gaps, voids, or spaces within structures to improve structural integrity, and one for bearing works (a machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion and reduces friction between moving parts).
While the public have themselves put pressure on Government at the urgency of repairing the only connecting link between Shillong and Guwahati, perhaps an alternative route could have been found before repairing a bridge with a daily toll of thousands of vehicles. This of course reflects on the lack of attention and responsibility by previous governments which allowed overloaded-coal trucks to pass through this critical bridge which should have been used only for light motor vehicles, despite the completion of the Shillong by-pass. And even after the bridge was considered to be in a critical condition heavily loaded trucks with essentials and LPG cylinders etc., bound for Shillong were allowed to cross the bridge because the carriers find the Shillong bypass too long and narrow from Diengpasoh onwards. For the present, vehicular movement needs to be strictly regulated and anyone taking undue advantage or trying to pass other vehicles must be subjected to strict action by the law. VIPs should take the Shillong bypass if they are in a tearing hurry to reach their destinations.
