Umling landslide: Few more days required to clear debris

FROM OUR STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, Sept 7: It will take another couple of days to clear the debris from the other part of the tiol Highway connecting Guwahati with Shillong. Huge piles of earth continue to accumulate on one part of the four lane road at Umling, Ri Bhoi district. Superintendent of Police Ri Bhoi District G.D Kharwanlang told The Sentinel, “The debris on one side has been cleared and traffic started to move during the early hours of Monday morning.”

Earth movers as well as men from the District and the tiol Highy Authority of India (NHAI) are working overtime to clear the debris that has inundated the road in order to facilitate the free movement of traffic, but the condition of the sliding mud will make it difficult to clear it all in the next two days, confided Kharwanlang.

“It’s almost like the entire hillock crumble on the road and it is not an easy task,” said the SP who was supervising the entire exercise. This is the second time in the past few months that the landslide occurred in the very same place. Experts attributed to the poor retaining wall for the landslide, but the Deputy Commissioner of Ri-Bhoi District and NHAI authorities could not be contacted for their comments.

However, the second mudslide has taken its own toll on the passengers traveling between Guwhati-Shillong and Guwahati to Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Barak Valley. The pace of the scheduled movement of the vehicles has been affected badly.