Contractors Responsible For Maintenance Now: Water Resources Department

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: In line with the PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana) model, the State Water Resources Department is going to entrust the contractors constructing embankments for their upkeep for three years after construction. The move is aimed at checking shoddy construction of embankments and putting in place a steady mechanism for their maintenance. In this model, 10% of the contractors’ bill will be put aside and paid them after the three-year maintenance period is over.

In the PMGSY model, after paving a road the contractor has to maintain it for five years.

Assam has as many as 449 embankments with 4,486 km river stretches. While 950 km of embankments are extremely vulnerable, embankments covering 2,330 km are vulnerable. A source in the Water Resources Department said, “We’re going to change the technique of embankment construction. Embankments will be used as alternative roads. After earth and sand filling, embankments will have to be paved with stone chips and then compressed with road rollers to make them fit for vehicular traffic. Vehicular traffic helps embankments to be more compact and increases their longevity.”

The source further said, “Around 40 per cent area of the State is flood-prone. Such areas are laggard in all vital indicators of development like life expectancy, expected year of schooling, per capita annual income etc. The department has identified 25 vulnerable and severe river bank erosion sites as Dibrugarh, Palasbari, Lakhimpur, Lahorighat, Baghbor etc.”

Maintenance of embankments, according to the source, is a Herculean task as their cumulative length swelled manifold – 211 km in 1954 to 4,486 km now. “Successive waves of floods breach embankments frequently. On our part, we also couldn’t repair them on time. Now we’re toeing the PMGSY line to entrust contractors for upkeep of embankments for three years after construction,” the source added.

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