Monsoon woes: Road near old KMC dumping site sinks, again

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 19 (EMN): With the onset of monsoon season, road near the old KMC dumping site on National Highway-29 (NH-29) has sunk again, prompting the Public Works Department (PWD) (NH) Kohima division to initiate repair works to restore the traffic.

Department officials overseeing the road repair work at the site, which is about 7 km away from Kohima, informed journalists on Wednesday that a portion of the road had sunk due to incessant rain, causing subsidence during the past few days.

The executive engineer (EE) PWD (NH), Kohima, Neilabeizo Angami, stated that as part of precautionary measure, the traffic route for vehicles had to be diverted to other roads for clearance and maintenance, although it’s not as bad as the previous years where ‘the road used to be completely cut off’.

He informed that the highway was not blocked; however as there were ‘too many vehicles plying on the road, which in turn disturbed and halted the machineries at work, the road was diverted for some time’.

The official expressed hope that the clearance work would be completed in a few days’ time, if the weather allows.

Despite the new traffic regulation issued by the Kohima police on Tuesday, many vehicles were seen taking the route. The engineer has appealed to the public to co-operate and adhere to the new traffic rules in order to facilitate the repair work to continue ceaselessly.

Stating that ‘heavily-loaded vehicles cause problems on the road’, he said that the load capacity for heavy vehicles should be checked.

Meanwhile, the Kohima police had, on Tuesday, issued new traffic regulations in view of the sinking road.

According to the order, all light vehicles will be diverted to Jotsoma by-pass road and no heavy vehicles will be allowed to ply on this route. Four, six and 10-wheeler heavy vehicles, buses and commercial pickup vehicles coming towards Kohima from Dimapur and vice versa will be diverted to Peducha-10th Mile-Tsiesema route from 5 pm to 6 am.

However, all 10-wheeler-and-above heavy vehicles and trailers going towards Kohima from Dimapur will be stopped at Peducha till the affected stretch at NH-29 is restored.