GUWAHATI: The quality of the national highways in Assam has come under the scanner. The question has arisen as the length of damaged highways in the state is much longer than that in most states of the country.
In fact, Assam has been listed as the number three state in the country in terms of having the most damaged highways in the past two financial years (FYs).
According to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), in FY 2022–23, the length of damaged highways in Assam was 463 km. Only two other states in the country have greater lengths of damaged highways than Assam. In first place is Maharashtra with 785 km of damaged highways, while Uttarakhand with 601 km of damaged highways comes in second place.
It was also revealed that other states in the NE have damaged highways of these lengths: Arunachal Pradesh has 102 km, Manipur 14 km, Meghalaya 148 km, Mizoram 42 km, Nagaland 29 km, Tripura 34 km, and Sikkim 21 km. The length of damaged highways specified for the NE states was calculated for the financial year 2022–23.
Similarly, for FY 2023–24, the length of damaged highways in Assam was reported to be 293 km, which again placed the state in third place among states with damaged highways. In this fiscal year, two other states have a greater length of damaged highways: Madhya Pradesh has 399 km and Tamil Nadu has 380 km.
The other NE states with damaged highways in 2023–23 are: Arunachal Pradesh with 71 km, Manipur with 24 km, Meghalaya with 172 km, Mizoram with 61 km, Nagaland with 58 km, Tripura with 8 km, and Sikkim with 7 km.
It is seen that, in recent times, some of the highways in Assam are in a deplorable state. Many stretches are full of potholes, while some are termed by motorists to be ‘unmotorable’.
It is a norm that construction firms working on developing highways should maintain the existing road in a way that is sufficiently motorable.
Highway development work is going on in several stretches in upper Assam, but it is a common allegation by travellers in that part of the state that the construction firms are violating the norms by not maintaining the existing roads properly.
ALSO READ: Assam: Encroachment in tribal belt leads to National Highway blockade at Sonapur (sentinelassam.com)
ALSO WATCH: