Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, April 03: While felling of the age-old tree near Hotel Shompen in Middle Point has brought respite for nearby residents and road users, the manner of execution has left many scratching their heads in despair. In today’s modern day technology and machinery, it took the APWD more than 24 hours to bring down a huge Sireesh tree and over 72 hours to clear the debris since Friday creating traffic chaos in the region. Non-involvement of expert agencies like NDRF in the operation has also become a subject of discussion among the city dwellers.
According to reports, the South Andaman Division following Court orders embarked on the exercise to chop down the huge tree last Friday. Hand saws were used to sever the massive trunk of the old tree and traffic was diverted completely leaving the Goal Ghar-Bengali Club virtually into a no-go zone. Though cops had a tough time managing traffic during the operation, unruly movement of vehicles damaged a number of road dividers at the Bengali Club Junction.
“It’s completely unbecoming of an agency like APWD to carry out a tree felling operation in such unprofessional manner. How can a department take such a long time to bring down a tree and clear the debris despite availability of modern day machineries? A few mazdoors were provided hand saws to chop down the huge tree near Hotel Shompen. After bringing down the tree, hands saws were again used to cut down the trunk to smaller pieces for further disposal. Latest equipments should have been procured from expert agencies like Fire Brigade for the operation. NDRF teams should have been employed for the exercise which could have reduced time significantly and prevented people from facing traffic commotion for three days,” opined some city resident.
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There were 25 electronic saws along with axes and many other items received by the Administration towards Tsunami rescue & rehabilitation process after 2004 Tsunami tragedy. These electronic saws were kept stored in PBMC store at Community Hall, Haddo. Now nobody knows about the physical presence of these electronic saws. APWD being the real authorities to keep and utilize such machinery, these saw can not be handed over to PBMC without the concern of APWD authorities. You may try to find out the present location of these electronic saws.