Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 14
Ingenuity in the most trying of circumstances certainly works wonders. Who would have imagined that the bamboo, besides its myriad uses could also come in handy as a makeshift road tarmac?
Unrelenting rainfall and landslides for almost 3 weeks had rendered the Japukong range road in Mokokchung district almost unfit for motor transport leaving villages short of essential commodities. Three villages – Yajang A, Yajang Model and Yajang B were among the most affected as a massive landslide stood between them and the nearest commercial town in Assam from where the villagers get most of their supplies.
The landslide, which occurred between Yajang B and Yajang C on June 27, was eventually cleared but the trouble did not end there for the villagers. A section of the road over which the mudslide occurred had sunk creating a crater-like stretch of mud and sludge.
Mending that particular section the conventional way would have taken weeks if not months. However, a villager’s innovative idea is now enabling vehicles to cross the sunken section with supplies.
The person in question, Bendangwati of Yajang Model village took it upon himself to make the sunken section motorable by laying almost a 100 feet long bamboo mat. When contacted by The Morung Express, Bendangwati, who is a retired teacher in his 60s and also the village council chairman of Yajang Model, said that the bamboo runway laid on July 13 was functioning fine allowing small vehicles to pass.
According to him, he employed some 15-20 people to weave the bamboo mat who took 2 days to finish it. Running 80 feet in length and 9 feet in width, Bendangwati said that the mat was laid over bamboo poles and wood as support placed over the affected section. The workers weaved it on the spot itself, he added.
Asked how he came up with the idea, he replied, “It is not something new to me. I have often employed this technique with success in jungle tracks in the past.”
The makeshift bamboo tarmac cost him around Rs. 20,000 but he said that the expense was worth the outcome. As many as 12 small vehicles have crossed the section since Wednesday for getting supplies from the neighbouring border town in Assam. He was also able to transport areca nuts to Assam, he added.
The makeshift tarmac hopefully would last for sometime. According to him it should sustain for a few months atleast provided heavy vehicles do not use if often.
The Japukong range road regarded as a road of economic importance by the state government for range’s development potential and its proximity to Assam was last metalled in the early 1980s. Like other roads in Nagaland, successive governments have failed to maintain road.
