Political Parties’ Delegation Demands an Alternative Road from Dhubri to Gauripur

A Correspondent

DHUBRI: A delegation of the All Political Parties Co-ordination Committee for Development of Dhubri district submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health and PWD minister Himanta Biswa Sarma demanding a road-cum-embankment along the Mora Gadadhar River from Dhubri to Gauripur recently.

The demand for constructing the road-cum-embankment has been raised since after the devastating flood of 1988 which threatened Guru Teg Bahadur Road (then DK Road) at several places and a part of it was totally washed away.

This time too during the recent flood, backwater of Brahmaputra spilled over to Guru Teg Bahadur Road and road had to be closed for seven days. Several memoranda were submitted to the Central and State governments, including one to the then Central Minister, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi at Cooch Behar Circuit House in 2004.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) surveyed the area it sanctioned Rs. 9.67 crore, but a local minister diverted it to South Salmara and spent it on Naga Bund, said an official unwilling to be quoted.

However, there have been consisting efforts made by the All Political Parties Co-Ordination Committee for Development of Dhubri District to get this project sanctioned in order to save Dhubri town from the sufferings of perennial floods

Talking to The Sentinel, a senior member of the committee, Partha Paratim Ghose, who was also part of the delegation, said that both Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health and PWD Minister Himanta Sarma assured to look into their proposal and take necessary steps on the project.

“The cost of construction of 7950.00 meters (around 8 km) road from Dhubri Zila Parishad to Gauripur has been estimated at Rs. 999.20 lakh. The Dhubri Deputy Commissioner also submitted six other proposals of roads, including this. We are expecting the project to be sanctioned and work will start soon,” said Hasan Ali Sheikh, one of the members of the coordination committee and part of the delegation.

The proposal of this road-cum-embankment was first placed by a local journalist in Dhubri Sub-Divisional Planning and Development Committee when Nagen Sarma was chairman in 1998, a retired official who was then officiating in the DC office, informed.

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