Further delay in Umiam dam repair

SHILLONG, May 28: The ongoing rehabilitation of the Umiam dam is likely to miss its fresh deadline of July and is now projected to be completed by the first week of August.
Power Minister AT Mondal on Tuesday defended the delay in the completion of the rehabilitation work saying they were initially planning to finish the project by June since the preliminary idea was to go for a bitumen surface.
“We have now decided to go for an RCC surface and you have to give a time of 28 days for the curing period,” the minister told reporters.
It may be mentioned that the rehabilitation work of the Umiam Dam started in December last year and since traffic is regulated in view of the repairing, the situation on many occasion goes out of hand as people sometime remain stuck in traffic for over two hours.
Mondal is confident that the work will finally get over by July end or the first week of August even as the minister said that the Power department is monitoring the traffic situation on a daily basis.
When asked about VIPs, police and armed forces overtaking, he said it depends on who is travelling for what purpose and sometimes there are emergency situations as well.
Meanwhile, the minister also informed that power scenario in the state is quite comfortable right now and the rain has given additional benefits to Meghalaya.