Labourers brought to the district of South Garo Hills currently await the completion of their mandatory quarantine, after they were brought from outside the state to work on the construction of a temporary bridge in place of the one that washed away on the National Highway-62.
A wooden bridge on NH-62 at Dimapara washed away after a spell of very heavy rains in the Garo Hills region more than 10 days ago. The washing away of the bridge as well as the dilapidated condition of the Border Road had led to almost the entire district being isolated.
According the PWD, the labourers arrived shortly after the bridge was washed away but due to COVID protocols, they are yet to come out of quarantine.
“We were informed (by PWD – NH Division) that they (labourers) will be out this Sunday after which work on the bridge can start. We thought of appealing to allow them to start work immediately but as it is just a wait of another 2 days, we will wait it out,” said GSU Mindikgre president, Greneth Sangma.
While initially locals were helping push small vehicles across the stream at Dimapara for a small price, however the feasibility of the same being continuing, in the face of goods trucks needing to move was close to negligent.
While rains relented for a few days and allowed motorcycles to move through another pathway, bigger vehicles still faced a huge challenge. Another spell of rains this week led to the entire section being blocked completely for traffic.
“Line vehicles were divided into those that would reach Dimapara from Tura or Dalu in WGH and those that would pick up passengers from Dimapara and move towards Baghmara. Passengers had to cross the stream on foot to reach the other bank before going to their destination. However this was not possible due to excessive rains 2-3 days ago,” said a local from Dimapara.
Many goods and passenger vehicles were reportedly stuck in the small stream when trying to cross over to the other side with some even requiring tow trucks to be pulled out.
The NH-62 that connects almost the entire South Garo Hills while also being an important road for East and North Garo Hills (NGH) has been plagued mostly due its poor condition with the huge number of wooden temporary bridges makes the situation worse.
While some bridges have been made into RCC structures, many such rickety structures still exist.
