GUWAHATI, Nov 24 - Voluntary organisation Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG), while welcoming the State government�s decision to construct another bridge to connect Guwahati with North Guwahati from Bharalumukh and Fancy Bazar points of the city, has maintained that the site at Bharalumukh selected for the bridge is not at all a traffic-friendly one.
The organisation urged the government to select an alternative site for the bridge. Or else, besides attracting chaos beyond the controlling power of the city�s beleaguered traffic police, this bridge will also cost the city dearly in terms of its natural environment.
In a statement here, president of SGBG Krishno Kanto Borooah and vice president Ajoy Dutta said that once the bridge is opened for traffic at this point, it will have a nightmarish impact on the Guwahatians. All city roads will get choked with traffic, as the entire traffic system in the northern part of the city, between Jalukbari and Paltan Bazar on AT Road and between Bharalumukh and Guwahati Club on MG Road and GNB road, will be thrown out of gear.
Besides making the city vulnerable to such a chaotic situation, it is now observed that to accommodate this bridge, the city is also made to pay a huge price in the way of sacrificing hundreds of its trees and some riverbank parks during these days of global warming. These trees have been serving a vast area of the city as carbon absorbers and oxygen suppliers, while the parks have been providing the people of this vast area the much needed open space, said the SGBG office-bearers.
Extending support to the Citizens� Co-ordination Committee, which has raised the banner of opposition to the government decision to construct the proposed bridge at the above site, the SGBG office-bearers said that in a democratic country, the government should always take the citizens into confidence whenever a major project is sought to be undertaken. But, in this case, the government has not taken the people into confidence and this is not a good sign, they said.
They also demanded a formal public announcement on the part of the government on its plans to compensate for the loss of the trees and the open space the city is forced to incur for the proposed bridge.
