As the September 20 deadline for restoring NH702D Mariani-Mokokchung served by Ao Senden to NHIDCL on September 13 lapsed, it remains to be seen whether the Ao Senden is satisfied with the work progress made so far. When contacted, Ao Senden president Chubawati Longchar informed that an appropriate decision will be made after a meeting that is scheduled for Thursday without divulging any further details.
It may be recalled that the apex Ao Senden had served an ultimatum to the NHIDCL stating that the route, which is completely damaged, must be made motorable by September 20. “Failing to comply with this ultimatum, the Ao Senden shall take its own course of action and the concerned authority shall be held due responsible,” the ultimatum read.
It is learnt that the Ao Senden officials have personally inspected the ongoing works of the road after they served the ultimatum.
Meanwhile, the NHIDCL have also on September 15 submitted a report to Ao Senden on “special repair of NH 702D, Mokokchung-Mariani road, from Km 0.000 to Km 63.000,” a copy of which is with Mokokchung Times.
The NHIDCL report was based on the information furnished by M/S Trident Enterprises, the firm engaged in the work. It was reported that, among others, “the contractor failed to achieve the required progress and to maintain the road in traffic worthy condition” due to heavy rainfall for the last four months, onset of early monsoon bringing unseasonal rainfall and continuous movement of over laden coal carrying trucks.
It was also reported that the project was reviewed by the DC, Mokokchung in the Project Monitoring Group Meeting where the contractor assured to achieve a physical progress of 60% within the month of September 2022. In this regard, the contractor has already procured adequate materials, manpower, machineries to achieve the targeted physical progress.
It was further reported that the contractor has deployed a new team having technical expertise on hilly terrain along with new equipment to tackle all the problems and that the contractor has assured to increase the working hours to expedite the work progress.
Ao Senden was supposed to meet on Wednesday to deliberate on the matter but has postponed it to Thursday owing to the DISHA meeting on Wednesday.