GUWAHATI, March 5 - River island Majuli now seems to be facing a serious challenge. It is feared that if the authorities fail to complete the bank revetment and installation of porcupine screens in a 27-km-long vulnerable stretch on the southern bank of the river island, opposite Jorhat district, before the coming monsoon, Majuli is sure to lose a considerable portion of its land mass to the erosion of the Brahmaputra river.
The Brahmaputra Board has been executing the physical protection works of the river island since 2004. Many stretches of the river banks of this island have now been developed into firm banks by the Board.
According to the sources in the Brahmaputra Board here, the Board this time intended to protect a 27-km-long stretch of the river island in the Salmora-Aphalamukh, Dakhinpat-Kalita Kumargaon, Kamalabari-Bhakat Chapori, Karotipar and Lower Majuli Chamaguri village (in Ahatguri mouza), etc., areas at an estimated cost of around Rs 160 crore.
This stretch of the river bank has been proposed to be protected with the use of sand-filled geo-bags and RCC porcupine screens in 41 locations. Work order for the purpose was awarded in mid-November, 2017 to TK Engineering Consortium of Model Village, Naharlagun. The time allotted to complete the project was 18 months since December, 2017.
As per the work order, the main component of the work is the protection of the bank with geo-bag revetment. The total number of geo-bags of different sizes required for the purpose is almost 21 lakh. So far, the company has brought only around 10,500 geo-bags to the sites. Again, against the requirement of around two lakh bars meant for RCC porcupines, only around 17,000 such bars are ready at the sites so far, sources said.
Many communications have been made by the Brahmaputra Board to the company with the request to expedite the process of executing the works, but so far, there is seemingly no initiative undertaken by the company to speed up the process of executing the works by bringing in the required number of geo-bags and porcupine bars to the most vulnerable sites like Salmora-Kalita Kumargaon, Bamungaon and Chamaguri, sources added.
The tender for awarding the contract of the works was settled at the highest level of the Union Ministry of Water Resources with the participation of the representatives from the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Niti Aayog, Finance Ministry, Government of Assam and Central Water Commission, among others, sources said.
