GUWAHATI — The Kamrup (Metro) District Magistrate has held Dinesh Chandra Kamakhya Highway Concessions Pvt Ltd responsible for severe waterlogging along the National Highway from Khanapara to Jalukbari, issuing a show-cause notice that warns of disciplinary and legal action if the company fails to provide a satisfactory explanation.
The notice cited field inspections that found cross-culverts along the highway "heavily clogged with silt and debris, effectively obstructing the natural flow of water" — with areas including Tetelia, Gotanagar, and the Excel Care Hospital stretch at Boragaon among the worst affected.
"Detailed instructions were issued during multiple 'mission flood-free' review meetings, mandating the clearance of all cross-culverts prior to the onset of the monsoon season. However, your inaction has resulted in undue public inconvenience and has severely hampered the district administration's disaster management efforts," the notice stated.
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The show-cause notice to the highway concessionaire is justified — the responsibility for maintaining cross-culverts on that stretch does fall squarely with the company.
But the action has raised uncomfortable questions about selective accountability. Guwahati's waterlogging problem is not confined to the Khanapara–Jalukbari highway. Culverts and drains under the State PWD, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), and other civic agencies remain choked across the city — contributing to flooding that leaves roads inundated after as little as twenty minutes of rain.
Various agencies clear drains on an ad hoc basis, roughly once a year, with some choked drains remaining waterlogged even through winter. In several locations, electric poles placed within drainage channels obstruct water flow — a basic infrastructural failure that has gone unaddressed.
The District Magistrate's notice specifically mentioned that all relevant departments and agencies had been present at multiple "mission flood-free" review meetings, where instructions for pre-monsoon drain and culvert clearance were issued.
If those instructions applied to the highway concessionaire, the same logic demands accountability from the GMC, PWD, and every other agency that attended those meetings and failed to act. The question residents are asking is a fair one: why does the show-cause stop at one company?
Until civic agencies face the same scrutiny as private concessionaires, Guwahati's flood crisis will continue to be managed one notice at a time — while the drains remain blocked.