Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Nov 3: The nearly collapsing culvert point near the ESS Sector tri-junction here is yet to see any repair work despite several exchanges of documents between higher authorities in the past three months.
On 9 August, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein had written to the development commissioner (finance) on the immediate need to restore and save the portion of the road from collapsing. Mein had requested the development commissioner to find out a way to provide fund from any available source of funding.
The PWD capital division B executive engineer had also prepared a ‘concept paper’, which was forwarded to the PWD western zone chief engineer’s office on 17 September. The concept paper estimated the restoration cost at Rs 381 lakhs.
According to documents available with this daily, the PWD capital division B EE had written to the capital deputy commissioner on 6 August, informing him that the culvert portion of the road “has deteriorated to such an extent that it is not fit for public use. Some stretches of the road may collapse any time.”
The EE had placed a request for fund from the relief & rehabilitation department, seeking fund for early restoration work, saying the road is “the only lifeline which connects entire upper portion of Itanagar, and also serves as a bypass/ring road for traffic ease.”
Accordingly, on 16 August, the DC wrote to the SP to regulate vehicular traffic on the road.
Meanwhile, mounds of sand still remain dumped on the culvert, blocking the road, even as traffic congestion increases in the city.
