Open Drains and Debris Block School Route in Dibrugarh, Residents Warn of Accident

DIBRUGARH — A stretch of road opposite Amolapatty Girls' Higher Secondary School in Dibrugarh has been reduced to an obstacle course of open drains, broken culvert slabs, and heaps of sand, silt, and construction material dumped across the footpath — leaving students and pedestrians with no safe passage.

Residents and daily commuters say the situation has been allowed to deteriorate for far too long, and that despite repeated appeals, the Dibrugarh Municipal Corporation has taken no meaningful action.

School Gate Shift Adds to the Chaos

The problem has been compounded by an additional strain on the area. With construction and upgradation work underway at the nearby Government Girls' Higher Secondary School, its main entrance has been temporarily shifted to Mahananda Baruah Road — a quiet residential lane that was never designed to absorb the volume of students and traffic it is now handling daily.

The result is a congested, poorly maintained stretch carrying hundreds of school-goers, with broken infrastructure and no functioning pedestrian access.

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'Are We Waiting for a Tragedy to Happen?'

Residents are running out of patience.

"The culvert slabs are broken due to poor workmanship and careless handling. There is no monitoring, no repair, and no accountability. Are we waiting for a tragedy to happen?" one resident asked pointedly.

The open drains — with missing or cracked slabs — pose a particular risk to students, many of them young girls navigating the route twice a day. With no alternative walkway available, they are forced onto the road itself.

What Residents Are Demanding

Citizens have called on the authorities to act immediately on three fronts: clear the blocked footpaths of construction debris, repair and properly cover the open drains, and restore safe pedestrian access to the area before an accident forces the issue.

So far, those calls have gone unanswered.