Just few hours of heavy rainfall on Wednesday early morning caused road between Itanagar and Naharlagun to snap. The traffic had to be diverted through the Jullang road till the restoration of NH 415. It caused massive traffic jam on the Jullang road. The one lane road could not take burden of huge traffic and in several stretches there was massive jam. It took more than an hour to reach Papu Hapa from Ganga market which usually takes around 30 minutes. The capital administration was totally caught off guard by the snapping of Itanagar – Naharlagun road.
As the construction of 4 lane highway is going on, these kinds of incidents were expected and administration should have been prepared for it. They had enough time to widen Jullang road and convert it into two lane road to mitigate such emergence crisis. The condition of Jullang road despite being repaired just before onset of monsoon is not upto mark. In several stretches, the road is very narrow and poses serious risk to the motorists. The state government should immediately convert it into a two lane bypass road. In future, the traffic volume in capital complex will rise and there is need to make long term plan to address this concern. The Itanagar to Banderdewa 4 lane highway project will not be enough to cater to the needs of the capital citizens. State government should plan more bypass and ring roads to decongest the NH 415.