DIBRUGARH, May 10 � Call it red-tapeism or lukewarm response, the delay in executing the proposed geo-fabric technology to arrest erosion along the banks of the Brahmaputra is allowing the river swallow vast stretches of the land near Rohmoria yet again.
After the recent massive erosion at Nagaghuli and Panbari, the river is now eroding huge chunks of the land at Gorpara, Bogatolia, Kachuoni and Auckland near Rohmoria. It may be mentioned here that in the past one and a half decade, at least 28 revenue villages, four tea estates, several holdings of small tea plantations, eight schools, one police station, one PWD road and wide stretches of agricultural land went to the bosom of the Brahmaputra due to erosion.
Rohmoria Erosion Resistance Struggle Forum (RERSF), a conglemorate body of several villages and organisations of the erosion hit area has welcomed the initiative of the government to apply the geo-fabric technology. Nevertheless, the forum said the erosion would not have been so alarming, had the concerned department taken timely preventive steps.
Ghonen Gogoi and Mantu Kumar Dutta, who are heading the forum as president and general secretary respectively have demanded immediate start of the geo fabric works. Anxious villagers in this erosion prone area are waiting for the application of the geo fabric technology, the leaders told mediapersons here today.
The works of the anti-erosion project using the latest geo-fabric technology was supposed to take off by now, however, no work order has been passed till date although tendering was over two months back. About Rs 56 crore will be spent to place geo-fabric bags as anti erosion measures. As envisaged, the geo fabric carpeting will be done in the vulnerable stretch of 2.6 km of the river Brahmaputra in Rohmoria and rest about 6.5 km stretch will be covered by other means. This would be the second project using the geo-fabric technology. A pilot project in Matmora in Lakhimpur district using the latest geo-fabric tube technology is already being executed by a Malaysian company called Sueskira.
Vital establishments like the Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh, Dinjan Military Station, Dibrugarh Airport at Mohanbari, Air Force Base at Chabua, Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) in Lahowal would be at risk if immediate emergency measures were not adopted. Principal of the Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH), T R Borborah during a meeting held at the hospital today, asked Water Resources Minister Prithibi Majhi to protect the premiere medical institute of the region from being eroded.
