Road repairing work at Ukl irks many

Mungchan Zimik
Ukhrul, May 11 : The All Hunphun Tangs Association, Ukhrul (AHTA) has taken strong exception to the shoddy road repairing work that is underway at Ukhrul town under the Bharatiya Infrastructure Private Limited (BIPL).
In a statement issued to the press, AHTA said that despite the repairing work undertaken, a stretch of 5-7 kms of the road running through the heart of Ukhrul town is still in a pathetic state and added that the work seems to have been done only in name.
The intention of BIPL seems to be to ‘swindle public developmental fund despite persistent pressure from the public not to compromise with the quality of the work,’ alleged the statement.
Far from completely repairing the road, only some select potholes were filled, alleged AHTA and added that even then the works are not satisfactory. Taking the shoddy work into consideration, AHTA appealed to the State Government and the NHIDCL  to conduct a physical verification of the quality of the work being executed before releasing the funds or to withhold the fund until the repairing work is done satisfactorily.
President of AHTA, a conglomerate of 27 localities of Ukhrul town, alleged that although the repairing work started in March this year, the potholes are only partially mended and the work quality is not at all satisfactory.
A shopkeeper in Ukhrul town, M Vasha said that labourers come in mini trucks loaded with mixed bitumen and gather the pebbles scattered around and fill the potholes. When the labourers are approached to do the work properly, their standard reply is, ‘wait for another phase of the restoration work,’ alleged the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper said that potholes in his locality were filled up on May 1, but within a week they started crumbling.