IMPHAL, November 19: The intensification of stir by the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur has crippled almost all centrally sponsored construction works in the state, which has resulted in the companies involved in the works losing in terms of crores each day, said the project manager of Shusi Infra Private Limited.
ATSUM (under the president of Muan Tombing) had launched its series of agitation from November 11 mid-night halting construction work of railway lines.
A team of media persons of the state visited the construction work site of Railway lines at Tupul, Rangkhong and Awangkhul today and interacted with site in-charge D Vengkateshwore at Tupul.
The site in charge said that for the salaries of the labourers involved in the construction works of the railway lines alone, his company spends at least Rs 15 lakh per month and since work stopped due to the ban, it is losing around Rs 1 lakh in a day.
Lamenting the frequent disruption to the construction work, he said this is the third such ban on railway line construction in the state, which he said is very much disappointing. He continued the target for completion of railway line construction need to be extended.
There are 115 labours skilled and un-skilled along with high charge machineries, he said before continuing that six days have gone since construction work had ceased.
We appeal to the state government to furnish the demands of ATSUM at the earliest so that it may not disturb the work, he added.
The project manager of Sushee Infra private limited base on Hyderabad, Shisikiran said they are the first company to complete the 19-A tunnel of railway and now they are working on four tunnels with 600 workers.
He said his company loses Rs 10 lakhs per non-working day and the work presently undertaken is a very critical one and if left unattended for long, there are chances of their collapses.
He further appealed to the state government to bring an amicable solution at the earliest.
He said that the targeted year to complete the construction work is March 2015 if there is no hindrance to the construction work. There are 9-10 companies working in Jiribam to Tupul of National Railway works, he said.
In-charge of Nayak Infrastructure Private Ltd, Kasu Dev said the ban has stopped work for eight days now and as such they are reduced to cleaning their office.
The company has 100 labour and 300 staff for construction works on railway project; they loss Rs three lakhs per day on this day due to the ban on construction work. The company is using 16 machines at high cost and working from Tupul to Rankhong areas, he added.
The Junior Engineer of North-eastern Frontier Railway Santosh said that during stopping work during the working season which is from October to March is very unfortunate. We are trying to work 24 hours a day during this period because the climatic condition is very critical, he lamented before adding that while three months are lost to monsoon, six are lost to bandhs, blockades and other local disruptions.
In such a situation, we could not be able to complete the project work by the targeted year, he opined.
Meanwhile the agitating group ATSUM spokesperson Majabung said that in continuation of intensifying its agitation, the DC and SDO offices in CCPur, Chandel, Ukhrul have been locked down today, while in Tamenglong district the national projects of Railway works and Power grid of 400 MW works have been affected.