Agartala:
After being stuck for 10 days in slush on a 20-kilometre stretch of the National Highway 44 at the Assam-Tripura border, there may finally be some hope for truck drivers like 37-year-old Vikram Das as the administration is speeding up the repair work on the highway.
Heavy rains have lashed both Assam's Barak Valley region and Tripura for the last 12 days. This has meant Tripura's only road connection to the rest of the country, National Highway 44 (renamed National Highway 8 under the new system), has turned into muck at many places.
After Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari's assurance and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's visit to the region yesterday to review the repair work on the highway, the officials are now visiting the area to make sure that highway is cleared on priority.
After Tripura government had sought the Centre's intervention to repair the highway stretch, Mr Gadkari tweeted:
"I had detailed discussion on this road and strong instructions have been given to the officials to work on war footing to open the road urgently," Mr Sonowal said.
District Magistrate of Assam's Karimganj assured that repair and clearing of highway would be done on urgent basis. He, however, gave no timeline as to when the road will become usable. The unusable section of the road falls within Assam.
Tripura is fully dependent on this highway for supply of essentials, food grain, fertilisers, petroleum products, construction materials and other commodities from different states of India.
Meanwhile, Tripura's capital Agartala has ran out of petrol. Over 1,000 trucks carrying fuel and other essential supplies are stuck on NH-44 . Petrol is being sold at Rs. 250-300 per litre in black market, while it is being rationed at 2 petrol pumps in Agartala. The city has over 60 pumps.
Tripura is fully dependent on this highway for supply of essentials
"I stood in a queue for 5 hours and was given petrol for Rs 200 per litre. It's an insane situation... something needs to be done soonest, " said Sanjay Modak, a state government employee.
"I don't remember such a situation in the last 20 years," says Badal Chowdhary, Tripura's minister in-charge of roads.