Teamtwo Productions's video: Roads in assam -Halflong to silchar Highway - offroad experience northeast india

The very term ‘National Highway’ brings to our mind, the vision of a broad well maintained road, with vehicles zipping past at high speeds. However, visit silchar via new halflong and the same term attains an altogether different meaning. These so called national highways are neither properly constructed nor well maintained. As these highways fall in an area with extremely high rainfall with frequent possibilities of floods and landslides, there is need to not only construct them well but also maintain them on a regular basis. But, due to rampant corruption in the government circles, backed by equally unscrupulous netas, most of the sanctioned money is usurped. (article) The road was under the maintenance of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) till July, 2009. Project Setuk of the BRO regularly maintained the road with the help of central funds and despite frequent floods and landslides, the road remained more or less in good shape. However, disaster struck in July 2009 when the Assam Public Works Department’s (PWD) National Highways Division took over the responsibility of the road. The department, notorious for corruption and non performance, neither has the technical expertise nor the infrastructure to maintain such an important road. It is a mystery as to why such a crucial road link was handed over to the PWD at all. As a result of its inefficiency, the highway completely collapsed within months. The long monsoon of 2010 worsened matters further and the stretch especially from Malidahar to Kalain had to be closed down a few times. Finally, after prolonged agitation by the people and frequent road blockades by them, reconstruction amounts were sanctioned by the centre and work was commenced by the PWD this winter. Assam’s PWD Minister Ajanta Neog has promised that the road will be ready before the advent of the monsoons. However, the turtle speed with which the work is being done currently, there is very little hope of the work getting finished on time. Whatever little has been constructed is of such poor quality that it is impossible for the repaired stretches to face the onslaught of the coming monsoons. There have been mass protests and blockades by the residents of Katogorah, Badarpur, Karimganj and Patharkandi against the poor quality of the work. Despite assurances and reassurances by the ministers, MLAs, the Deputy Commissioner of Karimganj and the PWD bigwigs, nothing has changed on the ground. The BRO, otherwise known for its efficiency, also seems to have been bitten by the PWD bug. The roads under their control have also deteriorated massively in the last couple of years. The stretch from Badarpur Ghat to Silchar of NH 53 is in such poor shape that it takes about a couple of hours to cover the 25 km route. BRO has recently started the repairing work of the stretch, but with rumours of the Assam PWD taking control of NH 53 as well possibly by next month, the integrity and interest of the BRO towards the work will always remain questionable. The Assam portion of NH 54 from Silchar to Mizoram border via Sonabarighat and Dholai is also in dire straits. The BRO which was entrusted with the responsibility of double laning the road in 2008 has not even completed half the work leaving most parts of the highway in complete mess. Project Pushpak of the BRO which handles the road has shown complete callousness in addressing the legitimate grievances of the people. NH 154 which goes to Hailakandi from Dhaleshwari is in comparatively better condition but the construction work of the 110 km stretch up to Vairobi in Mizoram is in progress for the last couple of years and is yet to be completed.