JORHAT, May 25 - Most of the heavy and light motor vehicles, including ambulances shifting emergency patients, have to stop at the eastern tip of the Jhanji bridge on the NH-37 as the river bridge has developed some potholes that are becoming larger and deeper every passing day with no signs of any corrective measures. Drivers often have to take their vehicles on the wrong-side of the road as they cautiously try to cross the bridge and there are also no traffic police personnel posted at this accident-prone portion of the highway.
Like the Jhanji bridge, a number of river bridges on the national highway in Jorhat and Sivasagar districts as also several busy points on it such as Chenijan, Teok, Kakojan, Gaurisagar, Bhatiapar, Darikapar, etc., have literally became headaches for the vehicle drivers and other road users with potholes galore in these portions. It has been alleged that the authorities concerned like the PWD and National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation are not taking any initiative to repair the highway for the past several months.
As a fallout, the worst sufferers are those who travel between Jorhat and Sivasagar on a daily basis and the patients of critical condition as ambulances transferring them to hospitals have to run at a slow speed on the dilapidated highway. The police personnel manning various roadside outposts and police stations have revealed that the deplorable condition of the highway has added to increase in the rate of road-accidents in the past some weeks that have claimed a number of human lives besides maiming several others.
Sharing their hellish experience of a rough and bumpy drive and travel along the NH-37 from Jorhat to Sivasagar several travellers today said that restoration of the potholed highway should come in the priority list of the new government at Dispur to make surface communication smooth and pleasant for the road users, besides preventing road accidents.
�I could accelerate my car beyond 50 km per hour along this 55-km road from Bhatiapar to Jorhat. Big potholes prevented every driver on the road to limit the speed around 45 km per hour,� said the driver of an ambulance. Like this driver, a number of road users talking to this correspondent at the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) of Jorhat and other roadside bus stations of Teok, Jorhat, Jhanji, Gaurisagar, etc., also echoed the same and called for early repair of the highway so that the people don�t have to suffer more while travelling on this portion of the highway.
