ITANAGAR, 22 Apr: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein urged the local engineers of the state to shoulder the responsibility of building good quality roads in the state, using the latest technologies.
Mein said that a major chunk of the engineers are local, and that they are aware of the local conditions.
The DCM was addressing a seminar on ‘Design and construction of sustainable road and bridge in hill roads’, organised by the Indian Roads Congress, in collaboration with the state’s public works department, at the DK Convention Centre here on Friday.
Mein urged the engineers to bring in latest technologies to make the roads in Arunachal sustainable. He also emphasised the need to have a road maintenance policy in the state.
“It is high time Arunachal Pradesh formulate a maintenance policy as, without maintenance, roads will definitely get damaged over the years,” he said.
He admitted that road designing and construction in Arunachal is a huge challenge due to the difficult terrains, landslides-prone areas, loose soil, and sinking zones. He advised the engineers and the experts to “take optimum time in designing and preparation of DPR” and to execute the works in the scheduled time once they are sanctioned.
The DCM urged the local engineers to gain knowledge from the experts in various
road constructing agencies, like the MoRTH, the BRO, and the Indian Roads Congress, during the two-day seminar.
He requested the experts to “make maximum deliberations on Arunachal’s perspective,” and urged them to come up with a policy to be adopted by the state government.
MoRTH ADG SK Nirmal, state PWD Commissioner Kaling Tayeng and Chief Engineer (SID&P) Tayu Gara also spoke.
The participants will deliberate on various topics, such as ‘general concept, planning and government policies for hill roads’, ‘planning, survey, investigation and design of hill roads’, ‘construction and maintenance of hill roads’, ‘disaster mitigation and tunnels for hill roads’, ‘road safety and asset management for hill roads’, ‘bridges and cross-drainage structures for hill roads’, etc, during the seminar. (DCM’s PR Cell)
