Road breaks apart within 6 months of construction

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jul 17 : The Sawombung-Sagolmang Road, also known as Keibi Road has started breaking apart at several points hardly after six months of construction.
MLA Thokchom Lokeshwar today made a field inspection of the road together with representatives of several local clubs and organisations.
Though it has been hardly six months since the road was constructed at the cost of Rs 22.25 crore,  cracks/fissures have developed and the road surface has depressed at several places. This is a direct result of the concerned engineers' failure to monitor the project properly and the contractor executing the project with the sole motive of earning maximum profit, the MLA said.
If the PWD Chief Engineer and the expert committee concerned do not pay due attention and reconstruct the road with due emphasis on the qualitative aspect, legal options would be explored to get the culprits punished, he said.
He also appealed to PWD Chief Engineer N Subhash and the officials concerned to make a field inspection of the parts which have been claimed completed.
Black-topping has been completed on most parts of the road although some other portions are yet to be black-topped.
But the road has started breaking apart on those portions where black-topping has been completed, Lo-keshwar said.
He said that the road construction work was executed by a special class contractor named M/S Kim and Sons Construction and Equipment from Laipham Khunou, Imphal East.
At the beginning of the road construction, some people went to the contractor and requested him to construct the road by maintaining proper standard and quality but the contractor intimidated the people, Lokeshwar said.
Even though many villagers complained that there were serious lapses and discrepancies in the road construction work, the concerned engineers overlooked the villagers’ complaint, he said.      
Because the Huidrom Village Development Committee and local villagers asked the contractor to  execute the road construction work as per the schedule given in the work order, the road construction work skipped Huidrom village, he said. If the road is not reconstructed by maintaining proper standard and quality within a week, there may be strong public agitation, the MLA warned.
He also urged the State Govt to take up befitting action against those engineers who failed to monitor the road construction work.
The Government should withhold the bills of the road construction work executed under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund until a thorough enquiry is done, said the MLA.