Meghalaya: How another resilient road in the Garo Hills became unusable
Garo Hills Rongjeng: If the infrastructure around us reflects the times we live in, residents of the now infamous Adokgre–Mangsang–Rongjeng road in East Garo Hills (EGH) can safely say that they lived in the 19th century.
A perfectly flexible road is scrapped to make way for a new road, only to be left without roads for funding.
The 44 km stretch has been a source of livelihood for at least 50,000 people in the two constituencies of Kharakta and Rongjing. While about 22 km of the same road from Rongjing to a little beyond Nengkarm is still usable, the rest is unusable for at least 4-6 months a year.
Angry residents affected by the poor road condition have threatened to go the ‘No Road – No Vote’ route after all their pleas for intervention fell on deaf ears.
“We met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma in 2019 and he assured us that the matter will be resolved and we need not worry. We gave him enough time to resolve the situation, but some It didn’t happen either. We once again sent a reminder that we have to face it every day, but nothing has changed,” said Sibiush Marak, president of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) on the road.
The road was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 210 crore in 2017 under the previous government led by Mukal Sangma. It was funded by the Non-Expendable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) and the North East Council (NEC), which was awarded the contract to two companies: CCL and BSC. Infratech. However, due to unknown reasons, NEC withdrew from the project, taking with it the Rs 88 crore allocated for the project.
NEC dropped the project in the middle by just Rs 123 crore. But before the return of the NEC, the road had already been demolished to make way for a new one.
“When the project was announced, we were very happy because the road would finally be overhauled. Although it was flexible, it was still not world-class. We hoped that many of our issues would improve. .. But after five years, we only have a world of promises,” said Bomba Sangma, a social worker from Mangsing.
