Bhagalpur: Nilanjana (name changed), a student of Class VII at St Joseph's School, Kahalgaon, has developed a fear psychosis and prefers to stay away from school.
"The jams on National Highway 80, taking which we have to go to school, is not safe. Recently, a few friends of mine and I had to face hooligans who targeted us when we were walking by the railway tracks to reach school, an alternative route to school to avoid jams," she explained the reason behind staying absent from school, as there was a similar jam on NH-80 passing through the heart of Kahalgaon township on Wednesday morning.
"Whom do we complain? Who will listen to such things? Who will believe us that jams can also aid eve-teasing?" said the father of the girl, an employee with the NTPC, Kahalgaon.
Anindita, a student of Class XII at Mount Assisi School in Bhagalpur, on Wednesday couldn't take her first-term examination properly, as she arrived school late.
"Pan India, an agency here which looks after water supply of Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation, has dug up the road near Deep Prabha Cinema on NH-80 to repair the damaged underground pipeline for drinking water supply. After the work they covered the dug-up road but a loaded vehicle got trapped in it resulting in a massive jam this morning," Deepti Sinha, a schoolgoer, said.
Divisional commissioner, Bhagalpur, Rajesh Kumar, admitted traffic is one of their biggest challenges here. "Overloaded vehicles and dilapidated roads are a matter of concern. Since there is no bypass here, heavy traffic passes through the main road. Overloaded vehicles and damaged roads keep the main road busy throughout the day," he said.
Vikash Vaibhav, the deputy inspector of police, Bhagalpur range, said the police have started a crusade against overloaded vehicles and recently cracked down a nexus between mafia, cops and local public representatives who used to operate a syndicate to let pass overloaded vehicles through the bridge across river Ganga.
"We have checked overloading to some extent but other issues such as damaged roads still influence traffic. They don't fall within a police jurisdiction. Those are road department issues," Vaibhav said.
Divisional commissioner Rajesh Kumar said a compensation issue regarding acquiring a 155-m land delayed the inauguration of the new bypass, which is almost complete. "We are serious about opening the new bypass. But first we have to solve the problems related to the 155-m private land," he said, adding that the national highway division of Bhagalpur has been asked to repair the road immediately.
Despite the claims of higher officials, it takes 5-6 hours to reach Bhagalpur from Kahalgaon, a distance of just 42km. The NH-80 stretch from Bhagalpur to Pirpainty is a nightmare for commuters.
Some craters inside the Bhagalpur city, for example in front of Shahid Jubba Sahani Central Jail or Bihar College of Engineering have virtually turned into small ponds after the recent rain. Because of the damaged pipeline many areas in the city are getting dirty water because of cracks in roads as well as in the pipeline.
"For the past 10 years we have been subjected to face such conditions despite tall claims of good governance," alleged Mohammad Mazid, a resident of Sabour.
