Mahasadak in maha-trouble

The faith of East-West Corridor lies in the dilemma of environmental clearance and sub-standard workmanship. Will it see the light of day?

Jyoti Lal Chowdhury

Mahasadak or East-West Corridor to connect Silchar with Saurashtra seems to be caught in the plethora of troubles. After long and intricate delay in land acquisition, came the non clearance by Ministry of Forest and Environment for the 31 kms stretch through proposed Borail Wild Life Sanctuary, apart from the extremists’ threat for extortion and ransom money, the construction when started, progressed and completed in many of the 14 packages covering 687 kms up to Guwahati, geo-physical problems became worrisome, particularly in the hilly areas of Cachar and Dima Hasao districts.

Along with that came out the glaring facts of sub standard works of the Corridor by some construction companies. The foundation stone of this Vajpayee’s dream project was laid in 2004 by B C Khanduri, Minister of Transport then, in the presence of Jaswant Singh, Finance Minister, with the target date of completion 2012. Student and youth bodies as well as NGOs went for agitation, questioning the delay. Neither the UPA nor Tarun Gogoi Government showed any concern for the public demand. Their only talking point was on Sanctuary and blamed each other for the delay.

But, with the return of NDA and Narendra Modi’s stress on development, the lid was peeled off. The construction companies in question adopted a dilatory process and executed the work in a wayward manner. In the absence of any monitoring or accountability in the jungles of Cachar and Dima Hasao, sub standard materials were used without following any guidelines. This told heavily on the quality and sustainability of the Super Highway. Nor was proper soil testing done to examine and evaluate the peculiar features of the hilly region.

Dhrubendu Shekhar Bhattacharya, BJP leader and convener of the sampark cell of Assam, took a group of journalists on a stretch of 177 kms of the Highway up to Maibong for an on the spot study of the progress and quality of work. The experience was a bitter one and truely unbeliverable. The blockade along the Sanctuary looked inexplicable as it falls in unclassified state forest without any flora and fauna of significance. The clearance from the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment has to be concurred by the state government. The clearance is now expected soon with the change of guard in Delhi, Bhattacharya said. The work is under package 14. It was also clear that a strong syndicate of politicians, bureaucrats and transport lobby has been active to cause abnormal delay.

To read the full text online subscribe to the magazine
OR

Get the copy of the magazine for details contact at email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.