SHILLONG, Dec 1: Trucks have of late taken over the city roads in the night hours ever since the government let the heavyweights into Shillong due to a complication in their regular route.
With no progress being made on repair of the Dwar Ksuid Bridge, Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has come up with criticism of the state government for loosely following up on the completion of the new Dwar Ksuid Bridge with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Admitting that plying of the trucks through the city has contributed to the traffic congestion, Rymbui recalled that in the past many years, pollution and traffic snarls inside the state capital was reduced as the trucks used the Shillong Bypass to travel to other states and even Jaintia Hills region.
“But now we are seeing some kind of a traffic problem since trucks began plying on city roads,” Rymbui told reporters here on Tuesday.
Asked about the FIR filed by CSWO president, Agnes Kharshiing, alleging that the trucks are illegally plying through the city by using the Umiam bridge, which is in a “dangerously weak condition”, Rymbui said that the permissible limit to ply on the Umiam dam bridge is 40 metric tonnes, adding that they cannot stop trucks which are proceeding to other states to ply through Shillong.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who is in charge of PWD (Roads), had informed that they had decided to construct a subway in the form of a steel bridge along the Shillong Bypass as a temporary measure to restore the smooth flow of traffic.
It may be mentioned that a crack had developed on the Dwar Ksuid Bridge in Ri Bhoi following which heavy vehicles were barred from using the Shillong Bypass.
