HEC raises concern over poor quality of BRTF road works in Ukhrul
Source: Hueiyen News Service / R Lester Makang
Ukhrul, July 31 2015 :
Hunphun Executive Council (HEC) has raised serious concerns over the poor quality of roads constructed by the Border Road Task Force (BRTF) in and around the Ukhrul township.
During an independent survey conducted by a team of HEC on Thursday, it was found that even the newly laid high budget Ukhrul-Tolloi-Tadubi highway has developed cracks at various points, apart from numerous pits and pot holes rendering major portions of the Town's main road deplorable, said HEC Chairman Everest Luikham in a press briefing here in Ukhrul town.
He said that the Ukhrul-Tolloi-Tadubi road was constructed in April this year, while adding even at the time of construction HEC had urged the BRTF authority not to use substandard materials but to go by the prescribed norms.
However, they deliberately ignored the quality control and executed the work without fulfilling the quality benchmark with the result that many cracks and potholes have appeared within a span of three months, he alleged.
Maintaining that despite enjoying allocation of funds double the funds for the State PWD, the executing agency had left out the roadside canal in the case of Ukhrul-Tadubi road which should be a part of the construction, he rued.
Further alleging that BRTF had deliberately flouted the prescribed norms, Luikham pointed out that supposedly completed footpaths over the roadside canals within the town areas have not been properly covered with slabs at several points, while the steep slope of Ngayira point at Awungtang has been left without concrete railings posing dangers to both padestrians and motorists alike.
Meanwhile, with conditions of the Town's main road fast deteriorating during the current monsoon putting the residents to great hardships, there has been widespread resentment brewing amongst the public.
Stating that the present deplorable conditions of the town's road speaks volume of the quality of construction by BRTF, Luikham bemoaned that: "it leaves much to be desired that the road has grievously withered within two years of laying" .