Himadri Kalita
It is as if the woes of Maligaon residents will continue for the next few months as the last date for completion of the flyover has been extended till Durga Puja.
The flyover has not only disrupted the lives of the common people residing in the area as they get stuck in traffic for a long time but also the business establishments for the past two years.
Since the start of the construction work for the flyover, traffic congestion has been the major cause affecting the normal lives of several. Students have to get stuck for at least two hours during rush hour before reaching their colleges on time while office goers have to face the same.
Upon getting the information that the date has been extended, one Handique College student said, “It is very difficult to attend our classes on time and maintain attendance due to this huge traffic congestion. Our classes start during the rush hour when office goers and college students come out to reach their destination on time. At times I was stuck for at least one hour in the Boripara bridge itself and reached my college after three hours when all my classes scheduled were over. If it was for once or twice it was tolerable however, almost twice in a week becomes problematic.”
“I understand that the flyover is for the betterment of the common people now that a large number of vehicles are seen on the roads to minimize future traffic congestion possibilities. But now the prospect that we will have to face this situation for another few months has become intolerable. As a student, it is impossible for us to afford Uber Moto, and Rapido, who demands extra cash, every day to reach our college,” she added.
An office goer said, “I am a resident of Pandu area and my duty starts at 10 am. It takes only a few minutes to reach my office in Bharalumukh. Every day I leave my house ahead of time to my office and yet I reach at around 10.30-11 am. Someday we notice that the traffic is less. We cannot predict when we will reach late or early.”
The flyover has not only disrupted lives of common people but also business establishments. Now that almost everything is available online, they have to compete with e-commerce as well as low customer flow due to unavailability of parking space.
It is like they are facing hard times since the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.
One of the shopkeepers in Maligaon Charali said, “Since the Covid outbreak we have been facing many hardships to run our shop. Although much stuff is available online yet our regular customers use to visit our shop to buy essentials and now due to traffic and unavailability of parking spaces our business has been affected by almost 50 percent.”
A shopkeeper of a cake shop said, “We use to have many customers who purchase a cake from our shop during birthdays or anniversaries or to purchase pastries. For the last two years, we have been sitting mostly idle at our shop. Hardly five customers visit our shop in the entire day.”
The residents of Maligaon have started complaining that the flyover is taking a very long time to be completed.
It is noticed that the construction work of the Maligaon flyover is comparatively slow than Zoo Road flyover as there is much more work pending and residents of the area seem to be not freed from traffic congestion.
It came to much relief for the Maligaon residents when Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the flyover will be inaugurated by Bohag Bihu in April 2023. However, it seems the residents will have to bear the traffic congestion for a few more months as a source from PWD (Roads) informed that the flyover will be inaugurated by Durga Puja this year instead of Bihu.
On the comparison between Maligaon and Zoo Road flyovers, the source from PWD said, “The Maligaon flyover covers a stretch of 2.6 km while the Zoo Road covers 2.3 km. Comparison between the two flyovers seems a bit unfair as several constraints were faced in the construction of Maligaon flyover with traffic congestion posing as the main factor.”
“If we notice, Zoo Road traffic can be diverted towards Rajgarh Road, however, it is not the same case in Maligaon. There are bypasses in that part of the city and no diversion which caused huge traffic congestion compared to Zoo Road affecting the construction,” he said.
Due to this reason, the workers are unable to work during the day-hour while at night the trucks take on the roads, making it further inaccessible to continue their work. The workers are left with only a minimal five hours to work.
The source informed that since the start of the construction work they had been facing many obstacles such as utility shifting like electrical lines. Tall electrical posts had to be shifted as they may have posed a threat to the flyover.
Other than that there was zero land acquisition which also posed as a limitation. Recently, the source said, they acquired five lessa soils for the construction.
Although the construction works for the flyover has begun in the year 2021, the work was hampered in between due to the second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak. While in the case of the Zoo Road flyover, the sources said, was not affected by the outbreak because it began post-covid.
The construction for the Maligaon flyover is being done by the joint venture of two companies Shree Gautam Construction Company Limited and Anupam Nirman Private Limited whose abbreviation is SGCCL-ANPL (JV).
As many as 9,000 tons of steel are brought from Jaipur for the Maligaon flyover.
With the monsoon season ahead bringing flash floods and waterlogging issues with it, the question arises whether it would hamper the construction work.
The source informed that the weather conditions will not impact the construction work and we are confident that it will be completed by Durga Puja 2023.
At least 70 percent of the flyover construction is completed and there is not much work left on the main road area, the source said, so slowly traffic congestion will be reduced.
Earlier, the Assam Cabinet included the construction of a new flyover covering Guwahati Club till Bamunimaidam in a slew of decisions taken in the meeting. But it is not yet finalized.
Speaking on the possibility of the flyover in Guwahati Club area, the source said, “We might face the constraints similar to Maligaon or it may be adverse as there are several bylanes here including residential colonies.”
Meanwhile, the Maligaon residents will have to wait till Durga Puja to check if it will be completed by then or the date will be extended again.
