Nagaland Foothills Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC) has resolved to urge the State government to explore a specific head to complete funding of the remaining approved amount for the bridge over Doyang river at Governor’s camp, Liphanyan in Wokha district as it was evident that construction had started under SPA fund, but was stopped subsequently due to certain changes in governmental funding pattern.
The committee also resolved to further direct the construction firm to complete the remaining portion of the construction in this working season without delay and assured of pressurising the government to timely release all funds in commensurate with the progress of work. This followed a joint inspection by a team comprising NFHRCC and civil society organisation members, PWD (R&B) officials and constructing firm’s staff of the bridge construction on February 22. Construction of the bridge had started in 2014 as part of the historic Foothills Road, now christened as Nagaland Expressway.
The inspection team hoped that both the State government and the implementing agency would expedite work the earliest to help realise the dream of the Nagas.
During the inspection, the construction firm’s staffs expressed frustration that altogether 39 working months were wasted due to many unforeseen reasons and work could be done only for 24 months. They assured the visiting team that they would do their best to complete the remaining work without much delay even though the last tranche of fund was released in 2017.
Technical experts of the department appreciated the firm as after several hiccups construction activity had picked up, and assured of submitting the updated progress report to higher authorities at the earliest.
Meanwhile, NFHRCC acknowledged the presence of newly-constituted Lotha Lower Range Public Organisations (LLRPO) team headed by Nongothung Yanthan in the meeting and requested them to cooperate and support to PWD (R&B) Baghty division executive engineer in executing the motorable road clearance under its jurisdiction as per the PWD (R&B) chief engineer’s letter (No. CE(R&B)/TB-HI/CORD/2019-20/PT-1/3125-28; dated, Kohima 14th Feb 2020).
It also appealed to the respective PWD (R&B) executive engineers of Foothills Road to provide reports as per the chief engineer’s directive on or before March 15, 2020 for smooth coordination in clearance of the entire Foothills stretch.
The committee also thanked and appreciated the Lotha community members and Koro New Baptist Church for preparing lunch and refreshment to the visiting team. This was stated in a press release by NFHRCC convener Supu Jamir, general secretary W Lemba Chang and assistant general secretary Chenithung Humtsoe.