Guwahati: Expressing dismay over the fate of an important road, named after Assam’s pioneer litterateur Sahityasamrat Lakshminath Bezbarua, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) urges the concerned authorities to reopen the road connecting Guwahati Railway station with Nehru Park/Gauhati Town Club point on MG road. The forum of nationalist citizens argues that LNB road should be reorganised for daily use by commuters as well as heavy vehicles approaching the Reserve Bank of India office, Army Transit Camp and the busiest railway station of the region.
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It may be mentioned that the GTC point on the north (adjacent to Judges Field and Nehru Park in Panbazar locality), where various government city buses used ply towards many important locations like Gauhati University, Assam Engineering College, etc till the Nineties, was transformed into a food court area sitting over an underground car parking place. For months now the restaurant named Food Villa remains closed and the deserted place has now been converted into a place for antisocial elements to hang out even in daytime.
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“The parking place under the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority continues to be dark and dirty all the time even though many city-based car owners use it regularly. The abandoned food court area and parking space should be demolished and bring back the original road. Otherwise, keeping the parking place intact (of course with proper maintenance) a concrete constriction can be erected so that the commuters and vehicles can easily move from MG road to the station in the south and vice versa,” said a statement from the PPFA. The forum lamented that a busy road commemorating Sahityarathi, who authored the State anthem ‘O Moar Aponar Desh’, inside the prehistoric city was closed for reasons best known to the then administration only and it must be reopened with the help of new technology for public use. It also appealed to State Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and Urban Affairs Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah to take the matter seriously and rectify the past error as early as possible.
(Nava Thakuria is a senior Indian journalist who contributes to various media outlets including print and digital platforms of India and across the world.)
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