Sunken road, damaged bridge cut off Manipur from rest of the country

A sunken stretch of road and a damaged bridge along National Highways 29 and 37, the two lifelines of Manipur, virtually cut off state from the rest of the country on Monday.

A stretch of around 100 metre of the busy Kohima-Dimapur sector of NH 29 near Nagaland’s state capital sank in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday following incessant rain in the last few days while a bridge over Barak River along the Imphal-Jiribam sector of NH 37 was damaged when a loaded truck was passing on it on Sunday morning.

The stretch where the road has sunk in Nagaland is located about 135 km north of Imphal while the bridge over Barak River is located about 128 km west of Imphal under Tamenglong district.

Authorities have stopped movement of heavy vehicles including trucks on both the National Highways since Sunday. As a result more than 100 Manipur-bound goods trucks are stranded along the hilly Nagaland sector highway while a similar number of trucks bound for Imphal were also stranded along Imphal-Jiribam highway near Barak River Bridge, reports said.

Incessant rains in the last few days sank a stretch of around 100 metre of the busy Kohima-Dimapur sector of NH 29 near Nagaland’s state capital sank in the intervening night of July 7 and July 8, 2018. (HT Photo )

Heavy vehicles to and from Kohima and Dimapur on NH 29 will be not be allowed until the sunken highway is restored, Talisunep Imchen, Additional Superintendent of Police of Nagaland and PRO at Kohima said in a traffic advisory note.

Light and medium vehicles from Kohima have been directed to use Jotsoma village to by-pass the affected stretch of the highway while those from Dimapur have been advised to use Peducha to Chesama route in Nagaland. Similarly light and medium vehicles are taking the old (Barak) bridge located close to the new bridge in Manipur.

An official of the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation which maintains the Imphal-Jiribam sector of NH 37 said, “We’ve removed the truck from the bridge and now the repairing and restoration works of the (Barak) bridge is underway.”