People demands for immediate repair of newly-constructed bridge at Pathsala in NH-31

A Correspondent

PATHSALA: A newly-constructed concrete bridge over a railway crossing at Pathsala in NH-31 under Barpeta district of Assam has been badly damaged hardly six months after the inauguration of the bridge.

This has caused much resentment among the local people and various organizations. Thousands of people use this road every day to visit various parts of Assam and the Northeast. The people have demanded a proper inquiry into the poor construction work of the bridge.

Seeing the snail's pace of construction work carried out by KMC Company, people, as well as the administration, sought early completion of the work in order to get respite from the traffic jam in the national highway. At last the bridge was inaugurated but KMC Company allegedly failed to complete the construction work of 27 km of the bridge from Kaljar to Bezkuchi.

During the decade-long construction work, the area turned into an accident-prone zone. A huge amount of money was released by the company for plantation in the middle lane of the bridge but the present condition of the plantation in the area vividly exposes the reality. Now some portions of the bridge have been badly worn out and steel rods lie exposed which is dangerous for commuters. If within a period of six months this is the condition of a newly-constructed bridge, people are wondering what will be the longevity of the bridge?

Giridhar Choudhury, the senior advocate of the area, expressed strong resentment over the issue and said that if the authority took no proper action regarding the technical fault in the construction, there was chance of fatal accidents in the bridge.

Talking to the correspondent, Nipukan Sarma, an AASU leader, said, "We have come to know about the release of an amount of Rs 89.45 lakh to KMC for plantation work in the middle corridor of the four-lane road for beautification. But one can hardly see any sign of plantation in the National Highway from Kaljhar to Bezkuchi."

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