Bridge repair yet to begin

Dhubri, Feb. 21: Work to repair the Fakirganj-Nidanpur bridge over the Jhinjhiram river in Dhubri district has yet to start two years after PWD minister Ajanta Neog laid the foundation stone for its restoration.

The work was even allotted to a particular contractor through tender.

Funds amounting to Rs 5.72 crore were sanctioned by the North Eastern Council (NEC) to restore the bridge in South Salamara-Mancachar subdivision of Dhubri district.

Masoor Ali Sheikh, an elderly villager of Fakirganj, said the bridge, the lifeline for the people of this area, was constructed during the tenure of then chief minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha. Chaliha inaugurated this bridge and walked down it in 1966.

"Within 30 years, a vast area, including the approach road from Fakirganj side was washed away during the 1995 floods and since then people have to cross this river to travel to the rest of Assam and Meghalaya which is not only time-consuming but also expensive," Sheikh said.

Echoing Sheikh, Momtaj Hussain, a trader of Nidanpur, complained that snapping of road communication between Fakirganj and Nidanpur severely affected business, particularly in Fakirganj and Airkata and Dhubri district as a whole.

Many country boatmen also alleged non-payment of bills by the NEC which used several country boats to ferry passengers and goods free of cost since 1996. Akbar Ali of Airkata village alleged that there was outstanding Rs 6 lakh payment against the bills for plying his boats.

"Not only me, there are many boatmen of this area who are yet to get total payment of bills, but the NEC seems to be in deep slumber as their repeated appeals to release the payment have fallen on deaf ears," Ali alleged.

Another boatman, Abdul Kader of Fakirganj, said he got a very negligible amount and his boat is his only source of livelihood.

"But if the payments of bills are held up for year after year, how could they run their families?" Kader asked.

An official source in Dhubri said Rs 5.72 crore had been sanctioned for the construction of an extension of the RCC bridge over the Jhijhiram river connecting Fakirganj and Nidanpur, approach roads to the bridge on both sides, improvement of the link road and the main road.

But another non-official source said the person who got the contract to construct this bridge and roads, could not begin work as the government had not sanctioned the fund (Rs 5.72 crore).