[caption id="attachment_224502" align="aligncenter" width="565"]
Travellers waiting for cabs to arrive outside the railway station in Dimapur on Thursday. (EM Images)[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Dec. 20: Over hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both side of the road along the NH 29 between Kohima and Dimapur on Thursday after two trucks reportedly broke down at the same location, between Piphema and Pherema.
While talking to
Eastern Mirror, a pick-up truck driver named Ratan Singh, who regularly plies between Dimapur to Kohima, said that he was caught in the congestion from Kukidolung area in Dimapur. He said that he departed from Dimapur around 2 am but managed to reach Kohima only around 8:30 am. Normally, Singh informed, he reaches Kohima by 5 or 5:30 am.
Singh said about 100-150 oil tankers and goods truck were on its way to Manipur when two trucks went off track inside the culvert between Piphema and Pherema, due to the slippery muddy road caused by the incessant rain recently.
He also said he departed from Kohima around 10 am, only to reach Kukidolung area around 4:30 pm. ‘Though the road is cleared, the vehicles accumulated during the time of clearance were very long that it created a train of vehicles stretching for several kilometres. Army convoy trucks that were arriving from Kohima on the other lane and at the same time, smaller vehicles created their own third lane. This made it hard for a proper passage creating a double congestion,’ he explained.
“The slippery road makes the tyres of the truck skid away from the road making it very hard for it to move. The trucks are still stranded along the NH 29,” he added.
The manager for the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), Rishinandan, told this reporter that the trucks broke down at chainage-143 (between Piphema and Pherema) in the early hours of Thursday. He added that the department received the information only around 7 am.
Rishinandan also informed that the vehicles broke down due to the muddy road left by the incessant rain. He said that the NHIDCL, with the help of their machineries, were able to clear the vehicle away from the road around 2 pm. “This is our stretch. We (NHIDCL) are looking after this project, so we are the ones responsible to look into such matters,” he added.
A taxi driver, who arrived at Dimapur around 4:15 pm, told this reporter that his vehicle was stuck in the traffic congestion since 5 am due to the road blockade. While, on the other hand, the travellers who were about to travel to Kohima, were left with no vehicles at the taxi stand outside the railway station in Dimapur with some taxi, which just arrived, refusing to go back.
