IMPHAL, August 30: Truckers stranded along the National Highway-37 due to a defect of the Bailey bridge over the Barak River have strongly deplored the sluggish nature of repair work carried out by the BRTF.
Meanwhile, official source from BRTF informed that the repairing work will be completed within 20 days at least.
Over 100 trucks are still stranded on both sides of the Barak Bridge and are waiting for the completion of the bridge.
Speaking to media persons, one of the stranded truck drivers revealed that they have been stranded for over five days waiting to cross over. However, they are seeing almost no progress, he said.
He further revealed that even as workers came to the bridge, the work actually last just few hours without much progress.
Since the bridge encountered the problem on August 26 afternoon, the workers only able to strap two metal chains to hold the damage part of the bridge.
According to Chanchal Sarkar, Junior Engineer of BRTF, they are trying their best to repair the bridge and added that it could probably be over within 20 days.
Claiming that the damage inflicted to the bridge was due to passing of overloaded trucks, he further revealed that this was the second time that the bridge had encountered technical difficulties since its opening November last.
This time the damage was inflicted by a truck and 12-wheeler truck carrying 600 cement bags altogether weighing 30 tons, he contended.
It is worth noting that the capacity of the current Bailey bridge is only 24 tons officially.
The truckers expressed disappointment over the failure of the State government to intervene into the matter till date.
According to the transporters, the government has officially sanctioned only 25 tons for ten-wheeler trucks and 31 tons for 12 wheelers when the capacity of the bridge is only 25 tons.
`It is like we are not allowed on this bridge`, said the driver on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, with the tense situation prevailing in the State in the wake of various issues, the transporters are transferring their goods with the help of labours from one end to the other.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/08/stranded-truckers-deplore-sluggish-repair-work-by-brtf/