2 die in potholed highway accident

A potholed stretch at Susthani More on NH34, 1.5km from the accident spot.
(Surajit Roy)

TT, Malda, Oct. 24: Two persons were killed when a speeding pickup van turned on its side while negotiating a potholed stretch on NH34 near Sadullapur near Malda town last night.

Of the 25 injured, five are in Malda Medical College and Hospital and 20 others were released after first aid. The driver was unhurt.

The Farakka-Raiganj stretch of NH34 — the highway starts from Barasat in North 24-Parganas and ends at Dalkhola in North Dinajpur — has been in a bad state for around five months.

Sources at Englishbazar police station said 11 persons have been killed in accidents on the stretch in the past one month.

Imran Sheikh, 12, and Manirul Sheikh, 30, both from Jalalpur in Kaliachak, 30km from Malda town, died on the spot.

Rafiq Sheikh, 20, one of the injured, said they had hired the van from Jalalpur to go to Pirpirani Dargah in Englishbazar and return. “We were returning to Jalalpur around midnight. The condition of the road is bad with potholes all over. Some of us asked the driver to slow down. He swerved to avoid a pothole and the vehicle turned on its left side. Many of us were trapped under the van. Local people helped us. They stopped vehicles and helped us reach the hospital. I have cuts and bruises on the right leg. I was released after the wounds were dressed,” he said. Sadullapur is 5km from here.

M.A. Rashid, the vice-principal of the medical college, said: “Of the 25, 20 were released after first-aid. Five are in serious condition having suffered head injuries and they are in the hospital.”

Malda police chief Prasun Banerjee said they were investigating the matter. “It seems that the bad road condition caused the accident,” he said. On August 11, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had driven down a potholed 22km stretch on the same highway between Kaliachak and Malda.

Food processing minister and Trinamul Englishbazar MLA, Krishnendu Chowdhury, said: “The frequency of accidents, many of them fatal, is on the rise because of the pathetic condition of a 105km stretch on NH34 between Farakka and Raiganj. Our chief minister had a bad experience when she took the highway from Calcutta to Malda and then to Raiganj. She had written to the Centre asking the National Highways Authority of India to repair the stretch. The Centre has done nothing. Three months have passed and the monsoon is over.”

NHAI officials said repairs would start when funds arrive. The Congress blamed the Centre and the state for the state of affairs and the BJP blamed the Bengal government.

District Congress president and Malda North MP Mausam Noor said: “Both the Centre and the state are to be blamed. The NHAI is doing nothing and the state is silent. Innocent people are getting killed. We will launch a movement if the road is left as it is.”

BJP district president Shibendu Shekhar Roy said: “The highway cannot be repaired as the state is not co-operating with NHAI for acquiring land for widening. The state should be more co-operative in order to get the highway widened.” Sanjiv Sharma, the NHAI project director in Malda, said: “We have sent an estimate of Rs 11 crore to to Delhi. We expect the funds soon.”