Cachar DC visits quake-hit areas

Special correspondent

SILCHAR, Jan 5: Last night, the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, S Viswathan, along with top officials visited the badly hit areas of Lakhipur subdivision during the earthquake. He was accompanied by ADC Baranya Das, SDO (Civil) T T Daulagopu, circle officer, Pradip Kumar Gupta, and SDPO Anjan Pandit. As two bridges, one at Hmarkhawlein and the other over river Jiri at Jirighat. Hundreds of vehicles, both passenger and goods, have been stranded on both sides of the two bridges. Traffic flow has come to a halt between this valley and Manipur.

  Both the bridges are on tiol Highway 37. Considering the gravity of the problem, the Deputy Commissioner directed the engineer of the NH division to take steps on war-footing for the repair of the bridges. While the bridge over Jiri developed several cracks during the tremor, Hmarkhawlein bridge was damaged before that due to the mounting pressure of vehicles. It is, in fact, a bailey bridge on which traffic has remained blocked since December 25.

From Fulertal, the streams of stranded vehicles can be seen. For keeping the Hmarkhawlein bridge in operation, the PWD (NH) engineer was accordingly directed to start the works of repair. The Deputy Commissioner and the officials visited the worst affected Chengjoor-Boalipar GP where several houses have collapsed. They also went round the Binkandie block area gaon panchayats. BDO Prabal Dasgupta was asked to collect report from GP president and secretary of the areas on the damages. Besides, for an assessment of the situation along Borthal, Thailu, Laboc and Jirighat, two magistrates, Wahidul Islam and P K Gupta have been deputed.