It is imposible to continue work on the Assam stretch of the national East-West Corridor road project, the consortium of firms with the contract have told the state government.
The reason is unabated insurgency in the North Cachar (NC) Hills area of south-central Assam. The ambitious centrally-sponsored project, commissioned by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is meant to connect Silchar in South Assam with Porbandar in Gujarat.
A joint statement by the major contractors — Gammon India, Valecha Engineering, TBL and Continental Engineering Corporation — said they were considering “absolute withdrawal” from the project. For, despite several requests, the Assam government had not been able to protect the workers from kidnappings and killings.
The representatives of these companies met the state government’s additional chief secretary yesterday and conveyed to him the pullout plan.
The work has been suspended for almost a year now, though machinery and manpower are still stationed there.
The NHAI had commissioned the construction of the 150 km national highway from Maibong to Lumding over 30 months earlier. Only a small stretch has been completed.
Stating his company’s Assam experience as “an unfortunate one”, Dinesh Valecha of Valecha Engineering told Business Standard the work could resume only if the state government provided adequate security.
“Every month, several incidents of killings, kidnappings and extortions take place in the area. On two occasions, engineers and other staff of Gammon India were shot dead. Valecha Engineering staff were kidnapped and held for 46 days.
Recently, on March 3, militant groups attacked the security forces stationed at Valecha Engineering’s camp site at Langting. After one hour of gunfire, our security personnel had to be rescued by the Army. Continental Engineering Corporation has also suffered similar problems in their two projects,” said Valecha.
“The development of the entire NC Hills area is in jeopardy due to the militancy. The insurgent groups are controlling the area and are asking for money which we cannot pay. If their monetary demands are not met, they resort to kidnappings and killings”, said S Y Warty of Gammon India.
Valecha said machinery and vehicles of the companies had been taken away by the insurgents.
“Past incidents have confirmed that the presence of the security personnel provided by the state government has been ineffective. Unless effective measures are taken to control the activities of the insurgent groups, it will not be possible to even carry out the maintenance of existing roads and bridges” said Hsiung Chiang of Continental Engineering Corporation
The fate of another national project, the Lumding-Badarpur gauge conversion railway project, is also hanging in balance due to militancy in the NC Hills area. On several occasions, train service on the present metre-gauge route, which connects other states like Tripura and Manipur, had to be suspended due to indiscriminate attacks on railway staff and locomotive drivers.
As a consequence, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram have been facing shortage of essential goods. Recently, Hindustan Paper Corporation’s Cachar Paper Mill had to close, as its raw material supply dried up due to suspension of the train service on the route.
