ITANAGAR, Jul 30: Capital Complex SP Tumme Amo has requested the public works department (PWD) to restore and construct roads and bridges in and around the capital to ease traffic congestion.
In letters addressed to various divisions of the capital PWD earlier this month, the SP had suggested repairing the road between ESS Sector and the Hotel Donyi Polo Ashok, and constructing log bridges near the helipad and Lekhi village in Naharlagun area and on the Division IV road here for plying of light motor vehicles.
The SP highlighted how traffic congestions “adversely affect the economy of the people of the capital complex as crores of rupees are wasted on wear and tear of vehicles, expenses of POL items consumed while wasting hours in traffic jams, and man days wasted in such wastage of time daily.”
He said the delay in constructing the bridge connecting Division IV is “not only causing public inconvenience but also heavy traffic jam from Vivek Vihar to Bank Tinali,” and suggested building log bridges, which he said would “reduce traffic jams by about 20 percent.”
Amo also suggested constructing medians or dividers at the earliest to ease traffic congestion, so that the police could use the barricades for other purposes. He suggested fixing the potholes and removing dumped building materials that cause traffic jams.
Meanwhile, the PWD’s capital division executive engineer informed the SP that construction of the double-lane RCC composite bridge over Yagamso stream in F Sector here had been sanctioned on 27 March, 2018, and an agreement has been drawn with the “most eligible firm/contractor, vide Agreement No CD-A/Agmt/2018-19/98, dated 13 December, 2018, wherein it mentioned that the work shall be completed within one year from the date of signing the agreement.
“The department, along with the firm/contractor, is pressing hard and working on a war footing to complete the bridge within two months, ie, motorable by the middle of September 2019,” the EE said.
Regarding construction of temporary log bridges, the EE informed that it “is not feasible as space is not available” for construction of temporary log bridges for light motor vehicles or pedestrians, adding that the department would have to request the landowners for space.
“Moreover, fund is not available to construct such a (log) bridge. Even if fund is provided, it will be just wastage of government exchequer,” the EE informed, and requested commuters to bear with the inconvenience caused for the betterment of the capital.