IMPHAL, March 14: The approach road to the gas bottling plant located at Nongthonband , Sekmai is presently in a state of apathy. The road is about 1 km in length from the NH 2 on the western side. The said road was black topped in 2002, and there has been no repairing work conducted since then. According to locals, the road has not been repaired by the state works department or the concerned gas plant authorities despite getting heavy vehicular traffic.
Awang Sekmai Nongthonband Youth Club, president M Opendro told mediapersons today that if the road is not repaired within March, then the road will be closed down indefinitely and the gas tankers will not be allowed to use the road.
The lone gas bottling plant of the State was established in 2007 and started commencement of work. The daily schedule is for bullet tankers coming from Digboi and other parts of Assam to deposit their petroleum load at the plant and afterwards bottle it in gas cylinders. At least 30 bullet tankers pass through the road daily and unload the petroleum product. Nearly 200 trucks carrying cylinders to the gas stations use the lone road which is about 1 kilometer in length.
Opendro further stated that the scattered rocks on the road is also deflected from the tyres of heavy vehicles and this has become a hazard situation to the public on the road, mainly accidents and injuries have happened to many individuals. Nongthonband has nearly 2000 residents and comes under Sekmai assembly constituency. There has been no help from the local MLA also, residents said. The main occupation of the villagers is farming. The condition of the road is more deplorable during rainy season as mud and silt coupled with the heavy traffic further bogs down road communication.
However, a survey was carried out by authorities of the Works Dept some months back but road repairs never began. The club members along with the locals have repeatedly approached the Gas plant authorities to repair the road or at least to bring it to the notice of concerned state works department, but a deaf ear was turned to the repeated complaints. According to the villagers, the last resort is to close down the road and stop vehicular traffic from April onwards.