Sonapur-Tongseng zone on NH 44 in the Khliehriat district in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, 110 km from here, has been hitting the headlines of the media frequently for the tragic accidents involving passenger buses of different travel agencies. The 3 km area has been identified as ?highly prone to accidents and landslips? by the Geological Survey of India and the ONGC landsat images. The Border Road Organisation has put up ?caution board? for drivers only to be flouted than complied with.

Sonapur-Tongseng zone has been witness to series of fatal mishaps, claiming lives and limbs, maiming many for ever. And the travel agency or the persons responsible for criminal negligence have gone scot free. Before the Sherowali night super bus to Agartala from Guwahati met with fatal accident which claimed 31 lives and left 36 other passengers injured, 10 of them critically, on August 8 last, it was yet another Agartala bound night super bus from Guwahati of Puja  travels that skidded off the highway and fell into Lubha river, killing 8 passengers and injuring more than 20. It happened on December 18, 2010. On June 17, 2011, a Sumo rolled down the deep gorges. It took the lives of 10 passengers. Quite tragic, 7 of the victims belonged to the same family. All of them were moving to Guwahati from Badarpurghat of this Barak Valley to catch a train for their native places in Bihar.

 Living memory recalls a Mizoram State Transport bus carrying passengers from Shillong to Aizawl got stuck in the mud and slush caused by landslides due to heavy rains. Before the bus sank, passengers along with the driver and his assistants were lucky to get out and move to safer places without their belongings. It was followed by that of a Capital Travel Agency night super bus on way to Guwahati from Silchar when in torrential rains, it was caught in the muddy stretch. Boulders rolling down from the hills along with gushing waters pushed the bus down the flooded Lubha river in which several passengers perished. The body of a business executive was recovered far away in Sunamganj of Bangladesh three days of  the mishap. All these accidents in the same zone are an eloquent testimony to the frequency with which accidents have been taking place.

 The causes or factors behind all these tragic accidents have been more or less identical  ?  overloaded passengers and goods, inebriated drivers, high speed, reckless driving, laxity in vigilance and enforcement  of traffic rules, lack of protection measures as well as basic infrastructure for rescue and relief works all along the Sonapur-Tongseng zone.
 The investigation report on the August 8, 2012 accident at Tongseng by a team of officials of Tripura Government headed by the district magistrate of Dhalai, Abhishek Chandra, attributed the mishap to all the factors mentioned earlier. Sherowali bus with a seating capacity of 30 had more than 56 passengers on board with 16 sitting on tools between the corridor of seats. Driver Dhanu Ghosh undergoing treatment in Agartala hospital clinically examined was found drunk.  Four lives could have been saved if immediate medical support was available, Chandra pointed out. Five of the dead could not be identified in the absence of any proof, a criminal offence on the part of the travel agency for not recording the contact numbers and addresses of the passengers against their names. Most pathetic, the human vultures, he said, after the accidents swooped on the helpless passengers, dead and injured, and robbed of all their movable assets.  

The police and transport departments of Assam and Meghalaya were blamed for ignoring overloading and allowing drunk drivers at wheels. If the Governments of Assam and Meghalaya are serious to prevent such accidents in future, there should be coordinated moves to conduct surprise checks of vehicles to ensure that there was no overloading of passengers and goods. Even if the police conduct checks, it is just for the sake of bribes only, said an official of Tripura without being identified.  

 With the Meghalaya and enforcement authorities looking the other way, mushrooming hotel and restaurants along the highway sell illicit liquor and some even run brothels. Drivers are lured for free drinks, food  and pleasure in exchange of passengers to take lunch or dinner. The official stated with the connivance of both Assam and Meghalaya police, overloaded buses and trucks ply all the way from Guwahati through the highway.  

Travelling public demand that iron-railings on the roof of buses should be dismantled to prevent overloading. The U-turns in the accidents zone cause the drivers of overloaded buses to lose control over the steering that leads to accidents. The sharp and blind bends, curves and turns should have steel-fencing and railings. Most important, drivers should be subjected to alcoholic test. Many of the long distant buses plying on the highway with low and high gradients and innumerable blinds, it is alleged, are old and not fit for run. There should be periodic checks of the buses which have lost sustainability or road-worthiness. The repeated complaints and representations of the Tripura Government to the Governments of Assam and Meghalaya for remedial measure have fallen on deaf years, the official said. This brings to the fore the often repeated charge of nexus with transport lobby. After all, it is money that matters.  

Jyoti Lal Chowdhury