Mizoram environment bears brunt of NHIDCL’s poor work on highways
AIZAWL: Mizoram environment bears brunt of NHIDCL’s poor work on highways. Irregular disposal of soil by a construction company working to widen national highways in Mizoram has caused severe damage to the environment, an official said.
Saitual Deputy Commissioner VL Hruaizela said that the failure of the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) to dispose of the soil to ‘ruin the bank’ has led to the loss of forest land, rivers, A large area of streams or rivers and ponds has been destroyed. Plans in the state
Centrally owned NHIDCL is currently working on widening or expanding various national highways in the state.
Hruaizela said spill banks have been set up every two kilometers along national highways or at construction sites between Aizawl and Saitual where NHIDCL is working to expand national highways.
However, the construction company or contractor would dispose of the bad soil irregularly in places where it deemed appropriate, causing a lot of environmental damage, he said.
He said that the district administration has set up a highway monitoring committee, which has repeatedly directed the company to dispose of the soil to ruin the bank.
The Secular Deputy Commissioner also said that two people have been killed in landslides so far due to irregular disposal of soil by the construction company and irregular construction of highways.
He alleged that NHIDCL was not properly supervising the contractors and sub-contractors working under it.
A media team on Saturday visited National Highway-54 between Azol and Sailing and National Highway-6 between Sailing and Kifang or Sechul, where expansion work is underway.
The team discovered that the soil was being disposed of indiscriminately and improperly by the contractors and sub-contractors without following the instructions that they should be destroyed to ruin the bank.Mizoram environment bears brunt of NHIDCL’s poor work on highways