Friday, March 2, 2012

Concern over Railway apathy

Frequent late running of trains like Barak valley, Cachar Express, Agartala Express and Hill Queen along with unjustified detention of these trains in several stations caused serious concern among the travelling passengers of entire southern Assam, Tripura and Manipur, alleged the people of Dima Hasao district.
These trains running from Lumding – Silchar and Lumding – Agartala and vis-à-vis, most of the times become late due to unauthorised detention in undesignated station for the reasons best known to the operating authority of the N F Railway. On February 29 the Down Agartala express was cancelled and the Up Agartala express was 19 hours late. The Barak Valley which left Silchar at 8.30 am reached Lumding at 11.20 pm covering a distance of only 219 km causing immense inconvenience to the travelling passengers. This train was detained first at Katakhal for one hour, from Badarpur it left at 12.30 pm then it was detained at Maibang, Mupa and at last at Manderdisa just before the Lumding station for more than 45 minutes. 
People alleged that the sufferings of the travelling passengers have never been counted by the railway authority neither the minimum facilities for the passengers were being provided rather these passengers were being subjected to face uncertainty and utter inconvenience, sometimes harassment. In fact, the railway authority has always been undermining the safety, security and punctuality though these were the motto of the railway as it says.
The condition of Hill Queen, a train which runs in-between Lumding- Lower Haflong to connect with the Jansatabdi is more concerning. Actually this train was introduced to get connection of Jansatabdi at Lumding but due to such unjustified detention in several stations, the passengers of this train often missed Jansatabdi and face untold sufferings.
 When the Assistant Station Master at Manderdisa Sri J. Ahmed was enquired about the cause of such detention of the trains, he disclosed that he has been serving there for 7 years along with all these problems ‘see my telephone is not working, there is no alternative means of communication with Lumding, the HQ. If you have some thing to say, why don’t you talk to Lumding or the HQ? Nothing could be done if you talk to me. Ahmed further disclosed that during his 7 years of stay at Manderdisa he has been facing such problems many a times. He could not assure when the people of this area could be relieved of such sufferings.

source:assam times{DIMA HASAO}

Dima Hasao to move Centre against highway firms

Nagaon, March 1: The Dima Hasao Autonomous Council will move Delhi with allegations about non-maintenance of existing roads by the companies engaged in construction of the East-West Corridor.
A council source said today a team from the council would meet senior officials of the Union transport ministry in the second week of March to apprise the latter about how the companies were violating construction guidelines.
This will be the second time the council has raised allegations against the companies since work started on the road project in 2004.
As alleged, companies are not interested in routine maintenance of the existing roads, which are being used to transport construction material on 10-wheeled trucks.
“We have two broken bridges on the existing NH 54(E) and both should be repaired before rains start. The dilapidated highway should also be repaired within the dry season. We have been asking the companies time and again to do so, but they are not at all interested,” the council source said.
A 154km stretch of the corridor runs through the troubled hill district. Construction is divided into seven packages and six construction companies have been engaged. Of the six, two companies — Punj Lloyd Ltd and HCC — are the oldest, being engaged in 2004.
“We have noticed violation of guidelines by the old groups. Punj Lloyd has reached 70 per cent physical progress, but their work is not satisfactory at all. Companies engaged in construction in two packages — Harangajao-Jatinga (AS 21) and Jatinga-Nrimbanglo (AS 22) — are creating hardships for the people by not maintaining the existing roads used by them,” the council source said.
National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) sources, however, said the companies were maintaining the roads and bridges on a routine basis and that there was no apathy or negligence as alleged. “Of the six companies engaged in the district, four are newcomers. After four companies surrendered work because of security reasons three years back, the new companies were entrusted work very recently. The council should give them some time to go about their duties,” an NHAI source said.
The source added that an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain latest maintenance position and companies would be questioned if found guilty.
In 2008, the council moved the Union transport ministry against the companies who had left the district without finishing the construction. The council authorities had asked Union transport minister Kamal Nath to look into the issue, as the companies had left the district leaving the existing national highway in pitiable condition.
The ministry later entrusted the maintenance (with financial support) to the council’s PWD (Maibong division) till the new companies took over. “If they want, we can take charge of the maintenance. But we will not tolerate it if they paralyse road communication till the construction ends,” the council source added.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Centre permits gauge conversion construction through Barail Sanctuary

The Union ministry of environment and forests gave its nod to continue the construction of the 214-km Lumding-Silchar broad gaugeBarail Sanctuary in Dima Hasao district recently. The Dima Hasao DFO had stopped the construction of the project in 2008 as the railway department did not have the permission of the ministry for construction through the sanctuary. The ministry of environment and forest gaveits nod last week and conveyed its decision to its Assam counterpart and the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) authorities.

According to the order signed by the conservator of forests (C) of the Shillong-based northeast regional office of the concerned Union ministry, the Railways can now go ahead with the construction work across an area of 3.6 hectares through the sanctuary. The state government also sent a copy of the order to the chief conservator of forests, Dima Hasao, in Haflong.

According to the clauses of the permission, NFR has to pay a sum of Rs 3,048,136 to the Assam forest department before going on with the project so that the Assam environment and forest department can carry out afforestation in 7.2 hectares of land of the Barail reserve forests, in line with the guidelines of the Supreme Court.

Sources say that the nod for construction will go a long way in ensuring that the work for the broad gauge project, the foundation for which was laid in 1996, is completed by December, 2013 and commissioned by January, 2014 in accordance with the NFR plan. NFR had earlier announced that the project will be completed by 2006 and then 2009 and again by 2012. The project has been a victim of 'logistical problems' in the past years, sources said.

The authorities said the construction of the longest tunnel in the section, tunnel 10, with a length of 3,235 metres, has started from both sides and is expected to be completed by October, 2013.

The Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam-Badarpur-Kumarghat gauge conversion project, which is 368.46 km long, was sanctioned in 1996-97. The project, costing Rs 4,073.50 crore, was declared a national project in 2004.