SHILLONG:
Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL), Sanjay Goyal, on December 22, clarified that the Umiam dam and the Umiam bridge are two different structures which are safe as per studies conducted, and the government is taking rehabilitation work for both the structures to increase their lifespan
Briefing media persons over concerns raised regarding the safety of the dam and the bridge, Goyal said, “I would like to clearly mention that both the structures, the bridge and the dam are safe. We have conducted a lot of studies with all the expert agencies, and over a period of time, they require rehabilitation, they require maintenance for increasing their lifespan,” Goyal clarified.
Mentioning that although the current work at the site has caused inconvenience to the public, Goyal said that the rehabilitation work will increase the lifespan of the dam by at least 40-50 years.
As for the bridge which is above the dam, Goyal said that ball bearings have to be removed to ensure that the structure is more robust in terms of handling the load capacity.
“So, these are the two works which we are taking up, and there is no reason we should delay it,” he emphasised.