4-lane road from Rangirkhari to SMCH is narrowing and turning as per Politicians, Businessmen's will, alleges ACKHSA

The construction work of the 4-lane road connecting Rangirkhari point to the Silchar Medical College & Hospital (SMCH) was officially initiated in February of last year, i.e, 2020. Back then, Dilip Kumar Paul was the MLA of Silchar, and he himself went there to inaugurate the construction work. The construction of wider roads meant eviction drive, however, it was noticed that few shops and some special buildings continue to stand tall standing unaffected by the eviction drive that bulldozed at many RCC buildings and shops.

As a result of those roadside constructions, the 4-lane road has almost constricted to a 2-lane one at some places of the stretch that connects the rest of the town with Silchar Medical College and Hospital, National Institute of Technology and Assam University. Many have protested against this narrowing down of roads in the past as well. This time, the All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students’ Association (ACKHSA) has sent a letter to the Chief Minister of Assam seeking his intervention on this issue. As the pandemic is still looming large, they decided to send the letter by e-mail rather than submitting it by hand physically.

After sending the letter, the ACKHSA members and advisors called a press conference and expressed their views. They said, “Whenever there is a four-lane road in any region of ​​the country, it goes forward in two directions with equal width. But for the first time, it has been seen that the road from Rangirkhari Point to Silchar Medical College & Hospital is progressing like a snake. Somewhere the road is a bit narrow, somewhere it is broad again. Like somewhere it looks like a snake’s stomach and somewhere it looks like a snake’s throat. The engineers who are working on this road might have completely forgotten their knowledge and thus, are not able to build a road of equal width.”

Apart from the various members of the ACKHSA, Advisor Niranjan Dutta, Rupam Nandi Purkayastha, Nikita Banik and others were also present at the press conference. Former professor Niranjan Dutta said, “This doesn’t happen usually during any construction work, but here some political personalities have deliberately taken over the spots and keeping them. As a result, the road in those areas are getting narrower and the rest of the places of the road are getting usual 4-lane width. If someone visits from outside of Silchar, they will laugh at this sight because a road built under the supervision of a government department can never be this unequal in width like the body of a snake. We want to see a re-survey and measurement of the road according to the 1952 government survey, to see which places are occupied by special people, which in turn us making the roads narrower in certain places.”

He further added, “It may not just be the case of political influence, it could have also happened that the officials of the department have sold the interests of the people through money transactions. We also have sufficient reasons to suspect the Silchar municipality, the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Land Settlement Department regarding this mismanagement. Thus, we have appealed to the Chief Minister to investigate the whole row and also direct the construction of this important road.”

Advisor Rupam Nandi Purkayastha said, “Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been paying close attention to the infrastructural development of Guwahati and the city is being rebuilt with one new project after another. Whereas Silchar, the second-largest city in the state, is still lagging in terms of infrastructural development. We wrote letters to the administration twice and presented them. There has been a lot of controversy and irregularities surrounding this road work and we have written to the administration twice pointing them out. In particular, the road from the Kathal road point to the National Highway point, various people have acquired and occupied land on both sides of the road and the government too is being helpless about it. The family members of some influential political leaders are occupying the land there, and unable to speak out against them, the officials of the department might have changed the design of the road and built it somewhere wide and somewhere narrow, which is wrong. We’re in a situation where we can’t physically present to protest this but we will continue to protest in any capacity we can.”

Apart from the construction work of the four-lane road from Rangirkhari point to the Silchar Medical College & Hospital, the members of the student body have also demanded a four-lane road to connect Assam University, Silchar. They argued that this road has two important educational institutions like the NIT, Silchar and the Assam University, where thousands of students and teachers commute daily. Many have had to face accidents and have been injured as well in the past due to the horrible road condition there. Once this road becomes four-lane width, students will be able to reach those educational institutions in less time, and with better safety for the passengers.