GUWAHATI, July 26 - �How much work have you done during the day, send details with photographic evidence daily� � this directive has been sent by the under-fire Public Works Department (National Highway) to all its field engineers, as flood waters have begun to recede making it conducive for the repair and maintenance works to commence.
The field engineers will have to report about the daily progress of work in a Whatsapp group of the department, which has been facing flak from people over the poor condition of several highway stretches. The engineers have been also asked to send photographic evidence to substantiate their daily report.
�In case of any lapses, explanations will be called from the engineers. We will also conduct random surprise inspections to verify if the daily progress reports are being sent correctly. In fact, we have already started sending our officers to inspect the works,� a senior PWD official told The Assam Tribune.
The recent wave of floods and heavy rains has affected around 504 km of highways, according to a report prepared by the PWD(NH). The nature of damages are formation of potholes, sub-grade failure, submergence, landslides, damage to culverts and bridge approaches etc.
The State PWD�s NH division looks after 2541.9 km of the total 3862.4 km of highways in the State. The remaining are under NHAI (696.3 km), NHIDCL (399.3 km), MoRT&H (25.8 km), BRO (31 km) and Railways (13.6 km).
The official said repair and restoration works have started on 17 highways, while work has been completed in around 65 km stretch of roads on seven highways.
Though the cost of restoration, including both temporary and permanent measures would required an estimated Rs 36 crore, the government has released Rs 11 crore so far for the works and that has been distributed among the divisions taking into account the extent of damage in their areas.
