Welcome beam falls apart, none hurt
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 30 2014:
The horizontal beam of the welcome gate built under PWD's Highway Division I at Koirengei junction along Imphal-Dimapur highway collapsed today.
The beam painted with the words "Welcome to Imphal" suddenly fell down moments after a police team passed underneath the beam from the direction of Imphal towards Sekmai.
Although many vehicles including heavy vehicles and two-wheelers go underneath the beam everyday, fortunately none was hurt today.
As the iron beam fell across the highway, vehicular traffic was blocked on either side.
However, some vehicles veered towards Koirengei Keithel and took the Leikinthabi road.
Later a team of Heingang Police led by the OC hired an excavator (JCB) from the nearby and the beam was pushed away.
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There was a gap of almost one hour between the collapse of the beam and its removal.
Vehicular traffic along the highway was restored at around 3 pm.
According to some local people, the iron pillars supporting the beam were already slanting because of repeated strike by heavy vehicles and many people were apprehensive that the pillar would break or collapse sooner than later but they did not know where to lodge a complaint.
One PWD official said that the gate was many years old and its pillars were worn out.
But there was no fund to repair it.
The gate was enacted when the road was broad enough for just two lanes.
Its pillars went too close to the road after the road was expanded.
Given this situation, there was a need to rebuild the gate anew but again there was no fund, said the official.