JAMUGURIHAT, Jan 24 - The four laning of NH-52 from km 182 (Jamugurihat) to km 206 (Biswanath Chariali) was undertaken by the National Highway Infrastructure Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) and is slated to be completed by July 2019.
The construction was allotted to M/s TK Engineering Consortium Ltd., at a cost of Rs 520 crore. But till now, hardly 30 per cent of the work has been completed. For the last one month, no work is going on as the landowners have approached the court on not getting proper compensation for their land. It has been learnt that the land owners were given only Rs 40,000 per bigha as compensation. After a complaint, the arbitrator fixed the compensation at Rs 40 lakh per bigha. But this enhanced amount has not been paid till now and, as such, the construction work has been stopped.
As a result, the people of the area especially of Sadharu, Chatiya, Nagsankar and Kusumtola centres are suffering a lot as the road has been left completely uneven and full of dust. The people of the small centres are having a harrowing time because of severe dust pollution.
It has been learnt that for maintenance and repair of this 23-km road, along the side of four-laning, an amount of Rs 13 crore has been sanctioned to the NHIDCL, but only 1.5 km of the road has been repaired by blacktopping and in the remaining portion, the potholes were filled up. People want the four-laning to be completed during the dry season itself as in the rainy season it will be difficult to promptly carry out proper repair and maintenance of the road. The attention of the people�s representatives and the Deputy Commissioners of Biswanath and Sonitpur have been drawn to this issue so that the suffering of the people is eased.
