Our Correspondent
Kohima | May 15
With the increase of vehicles in the town causing road congestion, and for the overall safety of pedestrians, footbridges across main traffic junctions in the state capital were constructed in recent years. Two pedestrian footbridges in the main town, one at Razhü Point and the other at Phool Bari, Old MLA Hostel junction, were constructed and inaugurated in 2007. However, the footbridge at High School junction that was taken up at the same time still remains incomplete with just two half-way up elevations on opposite sides of the road.
Informing on the incomplete bridge construction, Er. Meru from the Town Planning department, said the work remained incomplete due to non-procurement of steel structures for its construction. Apart from this, he cited problems with the contractors. “They (contractors) are not managing the procurement of steel structure,” he said, adding that there had been lack of understanding on the “technical aspect of the job”.
“They had not been able to perform,” Er. Meru said and added that owing to the non-performance of the contractors to complete the task, he informed that the contract would be cancelled and given to other contractors within a month or two. The total cost for constructing the footbridge is 38 lakhs, he said.
However, the part of the footbridge already completed has also not been utilised much by the pedestrians and majority of them still opt to hastily cross the road/junction by halting their vehicles. A pedestrian commented: “taking the footbridge consumes too much time as it’s ‘too zig-zag and high’.” The pedestrian also pointed out that it is much easier to walk across through the main lane and that the footbridge is “also very dirty”.
