Water logging forces Dhubri shopkeepers to close down 150 shops

A Correspondent

DHUBRI: Water-logging hit shopkeepers hard forcing them to close down 150 shops on the Netaji Subhas Road as water spilled over to their shops on Wednesday. This is not for the first time, water logging has become a perennial problem that hits shopkeepers during the rainy season. Nearly half-a-kilometre road from the DEEO and DI office point to Zakir Hussain Road is in a dilapidated condition while drains remains clogged with broken culverts.

Residents of the Netaji Subhas Road all along protested against constructing the road with concrete block as the condition of the block road constructed few years ago is not good. So they demanded the construction of lateral road with load-bearing drain cover. Of late, residents, however, conceded for block road if the block is of good quality and drain is fully covered.

But now there is tug of war between Dhubri Municipal Board (DMB) and PWD (Road) as to who will construct the road? This Netaji Subhas Road comes under PWD (Road) but it has not received any fund against the plan and estimate submitted last year, while DMB has the fund but no jurisdiction to construct the road.

When contacted, chairperson of DMB, Pushpo Malo said that this road comes under PWD (Road) so they could not construct it. Executive Engineer of Dhubri Division PWD (Road), Mehboob Ali informed that they had not received any fund against Netaji Subhas Road although they submitted plan and estimate last year. “Couple of weeks ago the Deputy Commissioner sought a plan and estimate for constructing block road and I have given it to him with estimated cost of Rs. 22 lakh,” Baktt added. When asked whether the road could be constructed by DMB since it belonged to PWD (Road), he said there would be problem if they took up the work to construct it.

Also read: Guwahati Traffic Stalled Due To Water Logging