The Fabrifoam mat laid on a slope of road connecting Guwahati with the Raj Bhavan on Kharghuli hills. Picture by UB Photos

June 5: The public works department (PWD), Guwahati division, today decided to submit a fresh proposal to Dispur seeking funds to use Japanese Fabriform mats to protect the entire stretch of road connecting Raj Bhavan on Kharghuli hills with the city.

This comes a day after a portion of the road got damaged after a 108m-stretch of road along the Brahmaputra collapsed on Sunday night because of landslide following rain the same day.

Officials of the department today said a fresh proposal would be placed before the state government soon mentioning the fact that the Fabriform mat used in a portion of the road, which collapsed in 2010, proved handy and similar materials should be used on the entire stretch of the road facing threat of damage because of erosion caused by the Brahmaputra.

“The Fabriform is a Japanese company, which produces mats, concrete bags as revetment (a facing used to support an embankment) solutions and is used to control erosion. A fabriform mat is laid on the slopes to protect soil from erosion and it has been found useful in the portion of the road where we had placed them in 2010. We had earlier asked the government to provide us funds for laying similar mats on the rest of 105m slope, which may collapse during rainy season and affect the communication with Raj Bhavan,” a PWD official told The Telegraph.

“However, we received no communication from the government. So we will soon submit a formal proposal with the detail estimates to the government seeking funds to lay the Fabriform mats to protect the road to Raj Bhavan,” he said.

Although Sunday night’s landslide did not affect communication to Raj Bhavan, it raised concerns about the safety of the road, which is used by the governor and people residing on the Kharghuli hills.

The official said a square metre of Fabriform mat costs around Rs 6,000.

“The stretch, which requires revetment solution, is nearly 105m long and 31m in breadth. We will soon take the detailed measurement and work out the estimated amount of funds required to use the Japanese technology and submit the proposal,” the official said.

The superintendent engineer of PWD, Guwahati circle, Biswadev Sarma, yesterday said the stretch of the road was facing threat of erosion and communication to Raj Bhavan may snap anytime during the rainy season.

The PWD had also requested Gauhati East MLA Robin Bordoloi to shift the people who live below the slope as they face the risk of landslide.

“There is an urgent need to vacate the areas below the slope. It is very dangerous for the people living there,” Sarma said.

Bordoloi yesterday asked the PWD and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to hold a joint meeting to find a solution for the protection of the road connecting the city and Raj Bhavan.