Stranded vehicles take Old Cachar Road : Truck driver still untraced
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 02 2020: With Imphal-Jiribam Highway cut off after Irang Bridge snapped in the middle last morning plunging a tipper into Irang River along with the driver, stranded vehicles heading towards Imphal have started moving on Old Cachar Road or Bishnupur-Khoupum-Rengpang Road.

On the other hand, the truck which plunged into the river is yet to be retrieved and the driver is yet to be traced.

Search for the driver went on till 8 pm.

There is a bailey bridge along the Old Cachar Road which is not in a very good shape.

Stranded vehicles take Old Cachar Road : Truck driver still untraced

As the vehicles have been forced to take the Old Cachar Road, PWD has been working to strengthen the bailey bridge by fixing missing pins.

Necessary process has also been initiated to procure some extra pins by flight.

Meanwhile a joint team of PWD (NH Division) and NHIDCL engineers made a field assessment of the Old Cachar Road today.

Additional Chief Secretary P Vaiphei went to Irang today and inspected the prevailing situation.

As hydra machine would not be able to pull up the truck (tipper), rescue workers have been working to pull up the truck using heavy crane and huge excavator.

Even though media reported that the truck which had fallen into the river has 10 wheels, one NHIDCL official contended that it has 12 wheels.

The official said that the weight of a tipper having 12 wheels would be around 11 or 12 tonnes.

The weight of its load (sand) may be around 20 to 25 tonnes which means the combined weight of the truck and its load was above 30 tonnes, said the NHIDCL official.

If one looks at the position of the fallen truck, it is possible that it was overloaded and it rammed on the side rail of the bridge which led to the unfortunate accident, added the official.

Had it fallen together with the bridge, it might not have turned turtle, said the official.

There are two tasks at hand; construction of a new bailey bridge and retrieving the tipper.

Both the tasks must now be done from the side of Jiribam as it would be very difficult to accomplish the same tasks from the side of Imphal.

If the heavy machinery and materials for constructing the bailey bridge and retrieving the tipper must be brought from Imphal through Old Cachar Road, the bailey bridge which connects the road may collapse and this would only exacerbate the existing problems, said the NHIDCL official.

As such, it is being considered to bring all necessary machinery and materials from Jiribam but it would take more days, he said.