Imphal, August 08 2010: The maintenance of the ImphalJiribam stretch of the National Highway53 was entrusted to BRO sometime around 1962-1963 as there were no qualified engineers in Manipur then.

At that time Manipur was a Union Territory of India and yet to attain Statehood, according to sources in the State Public Works Department.

Interacting with The Sangai Express some officials of the Department also pointed out the inefficiency and negligence of the successive Governments in taking care of the road stretch despite its importance.

According to them, the Government of India first took cognisance of the need to develop and expand the road stretch earlier known as New Cachar Road towards 1962-1963 in view of its importance in connectivity between Manipur and other North Eastern States including Assam and Mizoram.

Accordingly, the Government of India placed the proposal to some of the local engineers of Manipur which was then being administered directly from the Centre as a Union Territory.

At that time, there was no State Public Works Department as we have today and the work of maintaining the roads and bridges was being carried out by a handful of local engineers in consultation with one engineer deputed by the Government of India.

The proposal of the Government of India, however, had to be rejected in consideration of the magnitude of the task on one hand and lack of manpower and machineries on the other.

Subsequently, in 1968 the Government of India entrusted BRO to take up the task of developing the important route.

After BRO took over the task in 1968, the New Cachar Road, now also known as Imphal-Jiribam Road, was upgraded to the status of a National Highway in 1980 .

The total estimated cost of the project to develop the 225 km long road stretch which was worked out at that time was only Rs 80 lakh and the work had was started out from two points, one from Jiribam side and the other from Imphal side.

However, after Manipur attained Statehood, the successive Governments that came to power in Manipur did not pay any attention to this route and continued to live under the impression that since the Government of India has entrusted the task to BRO, the BRO would do the needful.

The negligence of the State Government is such that there is no document or file in the State PWD to monitor how much fund have been sanctioned by the Governmentt of India to the BRO for development of road since take over till date, whether the quality of the work is being controlled or not and what is the progress of the work.As the present condition of the road is so bad, the contractors and the machineries that have been despatched from here have not yet been able to proceed with the assigned task and they are being pressed into service for facilitating the movement of the vehicles that have been stuck at various points along the road.

Though the work has not yet been started, now a question as raised as to who would have to meet expenses of the contractors since June.

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