Highways on a check

Statesman News Service

MALDA, ( India) . Nov. 28. — The Malda administration today assured that it would seriously look into the matter of bad condition of the national highways as early as possible, following an agitation staged by the District Commercial Owners Forum and after a memorandum put forward by the Daily Passengers Association. Though both the organisations are usually involved in bickering, but on this particular issue, they have demanded immediate restoration of the damaged national and state highways. As such, the District Commercial Owners Forum today, launched an agitation programme before the district magistrate’s office and submitted their 13 points charter of demands for the repair of the roads and the national highways.The bus operators have also demanded eviction of those encroaching upon either side of the roads by building shops and motels and also highlighted the problem of goods carriers violating government rules. Where, the Daily Passengers’ Association has demanded revision of private bus fare in almost all the routes based on the proper calculation of mileage on different routes, the bus owners today asked the administration to take initiatives to circulate leaflets urging the people to pay proper bus fare as per the schedule framed by the administration recently. The people, including private car owners and inter-state truck drivers are very unhappy with the present condition of the roads, mainly the NH-34 and also the state highways across the district, connecting the international immigration check-post at Mehadipur in English Bazaar. On the other hand, both the state implementation agency as well as the district administration, are clueless about the fate of the NH-34 regarding immediate repairing of the roads, owing to the recent administrative changes of responsibilities for the road in this region. “We do not know when and how the damaged bridge on the NH-34 would be restored at Ballarpur near Farakka,” said an engineer of NH Division VII. The ministry of road transport and highways has reportedly handed over the charges to the National Highway Authority of India but no decision has been taken to set the situation right, sources said. The condition of the NH-34 in Malda and Murshidabad, under the NH Division VII, is very bad and owing to the damaged bridge on NH-34, traffic jams for hours at a stretch every day is a common phenomenon. “For over a kilometre, there is virtually no proper travelling route on the NH-34 in Murshidabad,” said Mr Subrata Das, a private car owner in Malda.