Imphal, August 21: With the Nagaland Government 'advising' the Government of Manipur not to allow trucks to carry more than 14 tonnes at a time on NH-39, there is growing apprehension that the State may face shortage of essential goods as already over 300 trucks are stranded on NH-39 on the Dimapur side following heavy landslides in between Kohima and Zubza.

The stranded trucks include petroleum tankers, rice carriers and other essential goods.

The trucks have been stranded for quite sometime due to the landslide while a number of oil tankers are staying put at Khatkhatti waiting for the land slides to be cleared.

Meanwhile some FCI Transport Contractors said that following the landslides, they have not been able to lift the full quota of PDS rice from Dimapur.

As a result the FCS godown at Sangaiprou is running out of stock, they informed.

If the situation continues without any improvement, then the contractors will not be able to lift the full quota of PDS rice for August from Dimapur FCI godown.

Though the FCS Department has given the go ahead signal to lift the rice for Imphal East and West, the contractors are unable to lift the rice from the FCI godown, they said and expressed apprehension that the quota for August may lapse.

The directives of the Nagaland Government is confusing, they said and added that the confusion has arisen because it has not been specified whether the restrictions on 14 tonnes is inclusive of the 7.5 tonne of the vehicle or not.

In case the ceiling of 14 tonnes include the weight of the truck then Manipur will face a shortage of essential goods, they said since the trucks will not be able to transport the optimum quantity of goods.

Following the massive landslides on NH-39 arrangements are underway to lift the PDS rice from the FCI godown at Ramnagar near Silchar and transport the same along NH-53 .

However the same problem exists along this route too as the BRTF has strictly advised that no trucks can carry more than 10 tonnes of goods keeping in mind the conditions of the bridges along this route.

As reported in the August 21 issue of this paper under the caption, 'Nagaland seeks cooperation from Manipur on traffic flow' on the 3rd page, the Government of Nagaland had advised the State Government not to allow trucks to carry more than 14 tonnes of goods along NH-39 following the landslides.

In a written missive to the State Government, the Nagaland Government had stated that "It has been observed that many trucks are over loaded carrying more than 25 tonnes as a result of which they are unable to pass the sinking areas and are stuck for days themselves, blocking others.

All trucks may be advised not to carry more than 14 tonnes particularly during the Monsoons".

Centre seeks report : For the core development projects taken up in the State under Central funding, the Union Cabinet Secretary has asked the State Government to submit action taken reports on these projects.

Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar visited the State and inspected the core projects taken up here personally a few days back.

Some of the core projects taken up in the State under Central funding include the railway line from Jiribam to Imphal, Tipaimukh Project, expansion of National highways and augmentation of petroleum stock of the State.

Meanwhile, with regard to the queries from the Union Planning Commission about projects implemented in Manipur under SPA during the current financial year and subsequent instruction of the Chief Minister, different Departments have started submitting relevant documents to the Planning Commission, informed a source.

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