April 8: Ajanta Banik has rented a place in Silchar just a few kilometres from her village home simply to avoid commuting along the potholed stretch to office everyday, which had earned her the disrepute of being a habitual late-comer.

A resident of Bihara village in Cachar district, she had to travel along the unmotorable Induprabha Road connecting her village to Silchar from Tarapur to Kalain.

Anyone travelling by car or bus between Kalain and Tarapur locality in Silchar along this road will be familiar with the nightmare one experiences on this 29-km stretch.

Banik, a 26-year-old state government employee, like scores of other commuters who have to endure the grinding journey to Silchar, had no other alternative but to move to a rented accommodation in Silchar to avoid the back-breaking journey.

Senior officials of the North Eastern Council’s PWD wing, admitted that paucity of funds had come in the way of repairing as well as re-developing this all-important road. After 2002, the PWD wing of the council has not undertaken any repair work on this stretch, an official said.

The road, leading to the Rs 20-crore Barak bridge, serves as an alternative to National Highway 44. But even the approach roads are in a deplorable condition.

Fed up with the apathy of politicians, the district administration and the PWD in repairing this stretch, several NGOs organised road blockades and observed at least two bandhs during the past three months.

But even these have not yielded any result.

According to the police, road accidents are now a common occurrence, adding to the woes of commuters.