The Meghalaya High Court has ordered the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to start repair of the badly damaged portions of National Highway-6 in East Jaintia Hills within two months.
The court also directed that within two weeks from today, emergency measures have to be taken by NHAI so that till the regular work is carried out, the badly damaged portions of the highway are reasonably pliable by vehicles. It also directed that the rest of the 45 km of the highway should be completed way before the onset of the next monsoon, within five months from today.
“The authority (NHAI) should ensure that work done is of such quality that it is not easily damaged by rain and other weather conditions in future,” the division bench of the High Court said while hearing a PIL on the matter here today.
During today’s hearing, the High Court examined the report of Suraj Panthi who is the Amicus Curiae appointed by the court in this PIL.
The photographs which have been annexed to the report showed some portion of the National Highway-6 in a severely damaged condition, so much so that it would be impossible for vehicles to pass.
The damaged portion as pointed out by Panthi is about 45 km out of 102.255 km. The very badly damaged portion as indicated earlier covers about 5 km. However, the report did not mention the location of this portion.
S Sengupta, the lawyer appearing for NHAI, told the High Court that if this location was indicated, he could have instructed his client (NHHAI) to take immediate suitable measures.
In that view of the matter, the High Court requested Panthi to immediately inform the NHAI about the location and approximate length of this part of the damaged highway.
Further, as per earlier orders of the High Court, the NHAI also filed a report in the court along with photographs which showed that extensive road construction, repair and maintenance work has been undertaken by the said authority in National Highway-6.
According to the report of the NHAI, 2 km of the stretch of the highway has been strengthened by undertaking bituminous work, 7 km of drains have been constructed and “reinforcement binding for 5 km of drain construction” is in progress.
The High Court also directed the NHAI to ensure that work done “is of such quality that it is not easily damaged by rain and other weather conditions in future”.
It may be mentioned that the subject-matter of this PIL is a stretch of 102.255 km of National Highway-6 between Jowai and Ratacherra. This highway is a lifeline for Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
