High Court watch gets agencies serious about improving Dikchu-Sankalang road

GANGTOK, 16 Aug: Following directions received from the High Court of Sikkim, the State government as well as Border Roads Organisation have submitted before the Court details of action initiated regarding construction of the Dikchu-Sangkalang Road and other proposals which they intend to implement to improve road connectivity in North district.
As has been reported earlier, the public and panchayats of North Sikkim have filed a petition in the High Court regarding the construction of the Dikchu-Sangkalang road. The Court too had not been impressed with the attitude of the authorities towards their responsibility in providing the villagers with a proper connecting road and had directed that concrete action be undertaken. The road is a primary link for the people of the area and they have been suffering hardships due to the incomplete and pending road construction. Even land acquisition process had not been initiated for improvement and widening of the road and construction of bridges.
On 13 August, it was submitted to the Court that a proposal has been initiated for the widening of the 21 km Dikchu-Sangkalang road stretch and for which revenue authorities, BRO representatives and the villagers themselves were involved in survey exercises. The survey works will also include inspection and examination of road alignment so as to minimize the damage to various residential structures along the road. These include 61 houses, both kutcha and permanent.
Colonel Reddy from the BRO submitted that the survey works would take about a month to complete.
Following the completion of the survey works, the BRO will put up a proposal seeking sanction of required funds for land acquisition.
It was also submitted that the authorities had decided upon three projects which include construction of temporary bridges wherever there were cable suspension bridges in the area for the convenience of the villager; secondly it was also informed that land acquisition would be initiated for construction of permanent bridges and thirdly black topping of the road would be undertaken as well. These projects are scheduled to be undertaken in the coming financial year.
The Court, while appreciating the initiative of the concerned authorities, reminded that regular updates were to be provided to the Court on the progress of works on a monthly basis.
Earlier, the Court had taken strong exception to the apparent lackadaisical attitude of the administration and other agencies towards their duties and had come down heavily on both the state and army agencies. It had also earlier observed that of the stretch of 21 km of the Dikchu – Sangkalang road only 1 km stretch of black topping was done in one year.