Cloud over NH10 work in transfer delay - PWD fails to meet deadline for taking over highway's maintenance and development

Rajeev Ravidas, TT, Kalimpong, Dec. 28: The delay in the transfer of maintenance and development of a 52km stretch of NH10, which is the main road link between Sikkim and rest of the country, to the Bengal public works department from the Border Roads Organisation has given rise to fears that both kinds of works will be badly impacted.

The Union ministry of road transport and highway had on October 12, 2015, issued a gazette notification, directing the BRO to hand over the 52-km stretch from Sevoke near Siliguri to Rangpo on the border with Sikkim to the state PWD for maintenance and development purposes by December 15.

However, almost two weeks after the end of the deadline, the PWD is yet to take over the responsibility.

Ashok Saha, the superintendent engineer, PWD National Highway Circle III, said the department was awaiting an "entrustment order" from the ministry and would take over NH10's responsibility at the earliest. Asked how early, he, however, did not give a timeframe. "We have not received the entrustment order from the ministry...procedure of maintenance and financial sanction is in process... We will take over the road at the earliest," he told The Telegraph over the phone.

BRO officials, however, said they were not able to make sense of what "entrustment order" meant. "In the first week, two senior PWD officials had come and we carried out a joint inspection of the road. We had completed all preparations for the handover, but the PWD authorities told us that they would not be able to take over the road as they were still awaiting entrustment order from the ministry. We have not come across any such thing called entrustment order," said a BRO official.

The Telegraph spoke to some other PWD officials who, too, said they had not ever heard of the "entrustment order".

According to the BRO officials, both the maintenance and development works on the highway were being affected because of the delay on the part of the PWD to take over the road. "The Union ministry of road transport and highway is not releasing funds for NH10's development, citing the changed circumstances. We are carrying out maintenance work with our limited resources. Frankly, we are in a catch 22 situation," said the official.

Saha, however, said there was no question of the maintenance work being affected and it was for the BRO to do the job till the highway's transfer to the PWD was completed.

Normally, most maintenance and development works are carried out in full steam during the dry months between October and May. Once the monsoon sets in in early June, the rains hamper work. As an uncertainty prevails over who should do the works, there are genuine fears that the road condition will deteriorate and the development work will be delayed. "The road condition will be badly affected if there is delay in the repair. We are fundamentally opposed to the takeover of the road by the PWD and have been demanding that it remain with the BRO. The PWD maintains NH55 (the road between Siliguri and Darjeeling) and it has not been able to restore that highway in five years (after landslides at Tindharia and Paglajhora). Can you imagine the fate of NH10 if it is handed over to the PWD? It will be terrible," said Tara Sundas, a senior CPM leader from Kalimpong.

Sundas also said almost 60 per cent of the 962 workers employed by the BRO had been jobless for the past few weeks because of little work on the highway.

"We will meet the Darjeeling district magistrate on December 31 and seek his intervention to ameliorate the plight of the workers. We also demand that the road remain with the BRO," he said.