Shillong, July 2: The Umiam bridge, a major lifeline for the state of Meghalaya, and the main bridge to enter Shillong city, has been undergoing retrofitting and maintenance work for over eight months now.

The Umiam dam, built in the early 1960s by the Assam Electricity Board for hydroelectric power generation, is one of the oldest hydropower projects in the North Eastern States. Due to multiple cracks, the dam requires repairs, and ITD Cementation India Limited has been entrusted with the repair and retrofitting work.

Following the recommendation of the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati, the repair and retrofitting of the Umiam bridge began on December 14, 2023 and was expected to be completed within 4-5 months. However, as of the first week of July, the work is far from completion.

Initially, the scheduled completion date was April 8, 2024. Later, CMD of MeECL Sanjay Goyal stated that the retrofitting work on the Umiam dam would likely be completed by May, despite the scheduled completion being in June.

In April, a government statement indicated that 60 percent of the drilling and grouting works had been completed.

On June 6, State Power Minister AT Mondal announced that the rehabilitation of the Umiam dam and retrofitting of the bridge were targeted for completion within the first week of August. The rehabilitation and retrofitting of the Umiam dam will increase its lifespan by 35-40 years.

However, continued delays have affected commuters, as the bridge plays a crucial role in connecting Shillong with other parts of the North East.

Traveling to Guwahati from Shillong, once a two-hour affair, now requires the public to be prepared for traffic delays at the Umiam dam of up to one to two hours. However, once the ongoing work is completed, travel times should return to normal.

The public has been advised to take alternate routes to Shillong – via Shillong airport and NEIGRIHMS – but these two roads are far from motorable with the distance increasing by an additional hour. Both the roads are in terrible conditions and there has been no repairs done to these two for years. Also, these roads go through many villages and are quite narrow for two buses to pass through at the same time.

Additionally, the signage along these alternate routes is another problem as proper directions are missing and drivers need to depend of Google Map to guide the way, which sometimes becomes problematic and google has a tendency to show any route, motorable or non-motorable and sometimes missing altogether, as a faster route!

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