Improvement of Dimapur City Roads Project

Improvement of Dimapur City Roads Project

Improvement of Dimapur City Roads Project

Road construction at Aoyimti, 2 1/2 Mile, Dimapur. While road improvement works have been active in Dimapur this year, only 7 of the 25 roads sanctioned for improvement have been completed as on December 2019. (Morung File Photo)
 

Only 7 out of 25 roads report ‘100 percent progress’ in 12 months

 

 

Imkong Walling 
Dimapur | December 29


In addition to the improvement/expansion of the Dimapur-Chümoukedima highway (NH 29), year 2019 has been surprisingly active, road-wise, especially in Dimapur. From colony roads to main thoroughfares, the entire year, since January, has been marked by an unprecedented move to improving riding conditions.


It all started in 2018 when as many as 25 different roads in Dimapur were listed for improvement under State Plan. A parallel project similar in scope was also undertaken in Kohima. 


Billed Improvement of Dimapur City Roads, the project was sanctioned in September 2018 with a combined length of some 40.6km, including drainage.  The length of the listed roads ranged from 250m to over 7km.  As per the latest estimate, the combined worth of the project stands at over Rs 56cr.


12 months was the original completion timeframe or December 2018 to December 2019. According to Department officials, the works set rolling in January this year.  


12 months on and year 2019 drawing to a close, majority of the roads remain incomplete or at various stages of progress.  


Information released by the PWD (Roads & Bridges) indicated that only 7 of the 25 roads sanctioned for improvement have been completed as on December 2019. As per the status update, the roads with 100 percent of the allotted work complete were Rengma Baptist Church to Eralibill Panchayat Hall junction, NH 29 to Nagarjan Junction, Improvement of road from Super Market to Mao Colony via Circuit House, Ura and Imkonglenden (section II), Bata Line, Batacharalli to Holy Cross Junction, DC Court Junction to Tragopan Junction via City Tower and City Tower to Dhobinallah. These 7 roads with a combined work cost of 17.9cr make up 14.45km of the total 40.6km. 


Two others reported over 91 percent of “physical progress” of work, while one reported 0 percent progress with no payments released so far, as per the status report. 


One department official attributed the slow pace of the works to an “extended” monsoon. “We had rain till the first week of November this year. It delayed the works to a great extent,” said the official. 


Besides the rains, a lack of requisite machinery was also a contributing factor. Some of the firms contracted for the project are said to be lacking in machinery as specified under the project. Unlike the old days when bitumen-aggregate was heated over pit fires on-site, manually moved and laid, today, that process has become mechanized. 


“As per our (PWD) specification, all the works have to be done by machinery. They need to have hot mix plants, pavers, rollers and other equipments,” the official remarked. 


While road rollers are common, hot mix plants and pavers are still a new thing here with only a few civil contractors in possession of such machinery. 


As a result, the contractors/firms lacking such machinery have to rely on renting expensive equipments from other firms. It basically implies waiting for others to finish their work.  


Another factor was money or lack thereof. According to the official, liquidity crunch for some of the smaller players contracted for the project also contributed to the holdup. He said that government contracts most often work on the principle of reimbursing post execution of work or reimbursements in installments, which implies firms investing its own money initially. 


While the better off firms with the requisite equipments and capital could complete the work on schedule the monsoon notwithstanding, he assumed it was a struggle for the smaller firms for a lack of capital and machinery, thereby, affecting the pace of work. 


If not for the perceived ‘lacks’ and challenges, the official said that the remaining works should not take more than two weeks to complete. 


The Department was said to have received applications for time extension for the allotted works from the firms. “The requests for time extension range from 1-3 months. If the reasons are justifiable, extension is normally given,” he said.


As per the status update, out of the estimated total “work order” amount of Rs 56cr, only around 14cr have been released as on December. Out of the 7 roads with “100 percent physical progress,” only one has been recompensed 100 percent.