Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 21: Works for laying of pavement quality concrete (PQC) along NH-29 has started on one side of the four-lane road at Purana Bazaar area in Dimapur.
The PWD (National Highway division) junior engineer (JE), Pangernuksung Jamir told Eastern Mirror on Saturday that the first 50-metre-trial of the PQC laying started on July 9 from Zion Hospital junction. Thereafter, the full process began on July 11.
The NH-29 project starts from New Field Check Gate till the Chathe Bridge at Chumoukedima. The first 2.9 km of the road starting from the New Field Check gate to the Zion Hospital junction would be a two-lane road; from there up to Chumoukedima would be a four-lane road of 12.9 km, and the last 1.5 km till Chathe Bridge would again be two-lane.
According to Jamir, the 12.9 km four-lane road will be laid with concrete. It was initially layered with 150 millimetre (mm) of granular sub base (GSB). It was then layered with 150 mm of dry lean concrete and the final layer with 280mm of PQC. Total thickness of the crust measures 580 mm, which is according to the specification given by the department.
On the contrary, the 2.9 km and 1.5 km two-lane road will be constructed with asphalt. It will be layered with 200mm of GSB, two layers of 125mm wet mix macadam, 100 mm dense bituminous macadam (DBM), and will be sprayed with 40 mm of bituminous macadam in order to avoid water seepage.
Jamir said that the DBM work between Chumoukedima and Chathe Bridge is in progress.
Furthermore, the total width of the four-lane road measures 21.5m. A 500mm wide road divider will be placed at the centre. Whereas, total width of the two-lane road will be 13.5m. Without the drain it would measure 10m. One lane will measure 4m wide.
The tentative duration for the completion of the road construction is 18 months—March 22, 2018 to September 21, 2019.
The slow progress of the work, Jamir shared, was due to the rainy season, which makes it difficult to acquire materials for construction. “We can do 1 km in a day but due to shortage of materials, we only manage to do about 150-300m in a day,” he said.
The engineer said that “the project will not be completed this year” but assured that the department is targeting to complete 70% of the work between August and September this year.
This project has been taken up by TK Engineering Consortium Private Limited from Arunachal Pradesh. Its project manager, SS Gautam, told Eastern Mirror on Sunday that the “minimum durability of the concrete four-lane road is 15 years.”
He said that the PQC road would undergo 28 days of ‘curing period,’ which is to allow water to moist the concrete to obtain its maximum strength. He requested the public to bear with the inconveniences. Joint cutting (diving lane) will also be conducted during this period.
The company’s material engineer informed that the concrete road would have a strength of 40 Newton per sq. mm.
Gautam shared that there will be 26 cross drainages between the road. Among these, twelve drains have been completed while four are in progress.
Gautam also mentioned that in order to reduce dust pollution along the road, the company is trying its best to water the road. Five water tankers are used every day while another four will be added soon, he said.
He stated that the wet area dries up quickly before they proceed further, due to the hot climate. “The duration taken by water tankers to move to and fro to fill water is also time-consuming,” he added.
Former Chief Minister, TR Zeliang had inaugurated this project under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) on Jan. 17, 2018. The project is being done under Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract.
According to Information provided by the PWD (NH) to Eastern Mirror on 2018, a total of INR 369.96 crore was sanctioned for the project.
As many as 57 areas along the road from Chumoukedima to Zion Hospital junction is being and will be affected due to expansion works. Spaces in front of several business establishments and shops along this stretch of road will be demarcated by a minimum of 1 metre to a maximum of 6 metres.
