Shillong road taking deadly shape; another landslide halts traffic for hours

We still get chills whenever we recall about that dark night when a bus filled with passengers heading towards Guwahati from Silchar, was forced off the road to the ditch near Sonapur. The rolling down mountain left all the passengers dead and since then, the word Sonapur and Shillong road journey have been haunting people. Must admit, in recent times the condition has improved a lot. We do not read a lot of landslide causing death news nowadays. But 2018 so far has been daunting enough to bring back the past memories. Last week, there was an untimely landslide near Ratachara which brought vehicular traffic to a standstill for about 12 hours. Yesterday, a similar incident took place again in the same area.

About 50 meters of NH 6 was covered with rolling mountain; a traveler traveling to Silchar from Guwahati told us the night bus was traveling very fast and they expected to reach destination way before the sunrise. But around 2:30 AM passengers realised that the bus is halted midway. They all soon realised that it is another episode of landslide. “There was mild rain” said the passenger, who along with others patiently waited till 7 in the morning and then walked passed the blocked area. On the other side, there were Cruisers available which charged people Rs 100 to drop till Badarpur. And from there, each passenger had to arrange a means of communication to reach respective destinations. Such was the harassment of the passenger we spoke to and thousand other who were travelling on the same route.

As per latest information the vehicular traffic is now moving one way, Khliehriat district administration in association with PWD NH is working towards clearing the other part of the road. We also got to know that there is a huge traffic, and vehicles are moving at a very slow speed. Five minutes, they are leaving one side while five other, this is delaying the clearance of the jam. Pinak Pani Nath, executive engineer, PWD, NH told us that few more such episodes of landslide might occur in coming days. He said a hill got shaken during the earth moving process and due to which this repeated landslides are taking place. Recently, to expand the road a chunk of mountain was dozed off, locals believe that the necessary scientific procedure was not followed during the earthmoving and that is the main reason behind these repeated landslides. Nath also told us that PWD is prepared for more such episodes and to ensure quick clearance of the road they will keep excavating machines on stand by.