NH 37 in limelight in the wake of bandh

Imphal, September 3, 2014: In the wake of the UNC’s call for an indefinite ban on vehicular traffic along all National highways and State highways which comes into effect from 6 am tomorrow, the Government has initiated special measures to ship in essential commodities along NH 37 (Imphal-Jiribam highway) with adequate security escorts and the volume of goods would be three times the normal volume.

However, people are likely to face shortage of rice as transport agents for transhipping rice from Jiribam FCI godown to Imphal have not been selected.

The State Government has already started making arrangements to provide adequate number of security forces after September 6 for facilitating transhipment of goods along NH 37.

As the volume of goods transported on the highway would be three times the normal volume, a large number of security personnel would be deployed along the highway so as to thwart off any disruptive activities, informed a source.

The convoy of goods carriers would consist of security vehicles in between every five/six trucks.

Although the State Government did not pay any attention to the Imphal-Jiribam highway for years, the State Government sent PWD officials to assess the worn out section in Sibilong area not long after UNC came up with its announcement for highway bandh.

Though the UNC’s bandh is on all National Highways, majority of the transporters prefer Imphal-Jiribam highway to Imphal-Dimapur highway.

Recently, the transport contract for transhipping rice from Jiribam to Imphal was cancelled by the Guwahati based FCI Zonal Office. Since then, no transport agents have been nominated for shipping rice along NH 37. As such, people of Manipur are likely to face shortage of rice.

On the other hand, WI Enterprises which has been allotted transport contract for transhipping rice to Imphal from Dimapur was allegedly involved in many cases of hijacking rice consignments in the past, the source said.

Source: The Sangai Express