Tamei bus skids triggering concern

Our Correspondent
KANGPOKPI, Oct 3: More than fifty passengers and the crew of a Tamei bound bus had a lucky escape this morning when the vehicle skidded off the road.
According to the IT Road Joint Monitoring Development Committee (JMDC) no passengers or crew sustained any injury.
The incident occurred at Manedara around 9.30 am along the shortcut road of the State's oldest highway Imphal-Tamenglong road which goes down from Thonglang Atongba and passes through Manedara, Lamchok, and finally connects to the main highway at Tujang Vaichong.
The passenger bus had taken the shortcut road constructed under PMGSY as a section of the main highway between Thonglang Akutpa and Songjang Pakang was blocked due to a recent landslide. The bus skidded off from the middle of the road and stopped short of nose diving into the gorge. Had the bus fallen into the gorge the impact could have been devastating.
In a video that went viral on social media, passengers including aged people were seen climbing down from the bus to a safer place.
It may be recalled that multiple landslides had occurred along the Imphal-Tamenglong road at different sites over the past few years causing tremendous hardships not only to the passengers but also to all the vehicles plying along the road as some portions are too risky to navigate.
IT Road Joint Monitoring Development Committee had taken up a major role in clearing the debris of the landslides for the vehicle to ply and transport passengers and commodities. However, according to the JMDC Chairman Lutngam Manlun, owing to a lack of funds they could no longer clear the landslides that had occurred recently which include the section of Thonglang Akutpa and Songjang Pakang village.
He continued that the JMDC had already spent a huge amount of money in clearing the road and debris of the landslides and had a heavy debt of more than Rs 3 lakh till now.
Had there been funds and the landslide debris between Thonglang Akutpa and Songjang Pakang been cleared and the road repaired, this morning's unfortunate incident could have been avoided, he added.
He then appealed to the MLAs concerned, the State Government, and the authorities concerned to look into the matter.