Amit Halder & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, June 29: Residents of around 4-5 villages of South Andaman Region blocked the stretch of Ogra Braj Junction for more than four hours this morning to draw the attention of authorities to the poor condition of the Andaman Trunck Road.
The entire stretch Andaman Trunk Road was dotted with innumerable potholes, causing problems for motorists, they said.
The residents have been demanding the district administration to repair the stretch since a very long time and some PRI Members has also written a letter 20 days ago to the administration for repairing the road.
“The authorities have not taken any steps to repair the road even after several attempts made by us,” Mr Subir Chander, ZP Member of Tushnabad Constituency alleged.
Auto as well as the Jeep Union of the Tushnabad area including most of the PRI members of the 4-5 Panchayats i.e Tushnabad, Brindavan, Mitha Khari, Humphrygunj participated in the protest.
Sub Divisional Magistrate, South Andaman, Ms Mitali Goel visited the protest sites and assured them that patch works would be carried out from today and within seven days the ATR road till Jirkatang will get repaired. She further also said that a meeting with the PRI Members with the authorities of NHIDCL will be held today to discuss further agendas to improve the condition of the ATR following which the protest concluded after more than 3 hours.
The repair work of the ATR has also started today. However, a large number of public had to suffer badly due to the road blockage at Ograbraj Junction. Many reached too late to their office and the worst hit were those who had to travel to North & Middle Andaman.
