Kohima-bypass road update: Excavation of 500 metre-long tunnel in progress

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 16 (EMN): The excavation work of the 500 metre-long tunnel at Meriema is in progress with about 70 metre from western side of the tunnel portal of Kohima-bypass package-2 having completed as on August 15.

A civil foreman of the project informed this newspaper during a spot visit on Sunday that the excavation work of the tunnel was going “smooth” without any disruption so far.

Kohima-bypass road

The tunnel which started in April 2021 is expected to take two years for completion, it was informed. The source informed that the company — Bharat Construction — is currently engaging about 150 workers who are working in shifts — day and night — on a daily basis.

Explaining how the tunnel would look like after completion, the source said that it would have lights every two metre and pavement on both sides. Public and visitors are restricted inside the tunnel excavation area over safety reasons, it was informed.

The 500 metre-long tunnel will have a width of 11 metre and height of 5.5 metre (vertical clearance). It is a part of the two-lane Kohima-bypass road connecting National Highway NH-29 and National Highway-2.

In the recently concluded state Assembly session, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had informed that there was no provision for land compensation (either inside or above the land) for the tunnel construction, as per the central criteria, but the state government was compelled to to give as landowners had demanded.

He added that the excavation work of tunnel in the western side had already begun and work from eastern side portal would start soon.

It may be mentioned that the chief minister had inspected the project in May this year and sought the co-operation of the villagers for smooth work and timely completion of the project. 

Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton, who is also the minister in-charge of Road and Bridges, had tabled the detailed status and amount distributed to landowners of Kohima-bypass package-2 of Meriema during the recently concluded NLA monsoon session.

He informed that excavation of 55 metre from western tunnel portal had been completed.

The completed portion of the tunnel has now increased to 70 metre. 

The tunnel comes under package-II of the Kohima-bypass two-lane road project, the minister had said, adding that package-II has a chainage 10.50 km (10+500 to 21+000).

A total of 105 landowners from three villages — Meriema, Kohima, and Thizama — had been identified and a total of 101 landowners had received compensation for their land.

Total amount disbursed to the landowners stood at INR 24.36 crore (INR 24,36,56,346), it was informed.

The minister further informed that the estimation for damage compensation is still ongoing and the survey for realigned portion as well.