Agartala, Aug 26, 2024, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Agartala, Aug 26: Secretary to PWD Kiran Gitte on Monday said, 4,658.86 km roads across the state have been damaged severely due to flood.

He said, the department faced a Rs. 1,825 crore loss due to damage of assets encompassing roads, bridges and culverts.

Addressing a press conference, Gitte said, due to heavy rains landslides occurred at 4,644 places across the state. Till now, debris have been cleared in 4,087 places with the use of 321 JCS/dozers/ dumpers/ tippers etc. Further, roads, bridges and culverts had collapsed due to soil erosion at 3,739 locations, of which in 1,048 places restoration work has been completed.

To remove the landslide-caused debris, restore roads, bridges and culverts, 1850 labourers / helpers/ drivers have been engaged through 228 agencies. To oversee these works, 200 engineers have been engaged.

The PWD secretary also informed, the water of 10 rivers, out of 11 prime rivers of the state, flowed above the danger level following unprecedented rains. As a result, 97.34 km long dam developed crack/ leakage/ erosion. During the flood, 3.50 lakh bags of sand were dumped on the river banks to prevent further erosion. He said, the dams in Udaipur, Hrishyamukh, Kailashahar and Sabroom have been affected at some points badly.

The damage also occurred to irrigation diversions, lift irrigation and high power life irrigation projects, deep tube well, small bore tube wells, due to which the DWS department faced a loss of around Rs. 625 crore.

Briefing about the health related measures, Gitte, also the health secretary, said emphasis has been given on organizing health camps in flood-affected areas.

Till now doctors and health workers have visited the relief camps 1,107 times. Under the initiative of the health department till now 1,650 health camps have been organized catering to 42,155 people through these health camps. In the flood situation, the health department arranged health check-up of 35,477 people of 23,165 families.

In the health camps, treatment of diarrhea, breathing issues, skin infection, fever, injury etc. was facilitated. The flood victims have been advised to drink boiled water.

For health safety, till now 739 bags of bleaching powder have been distributed in the flood affected areas. In addition, the health centres of the state have been equipped with adequate medicines for diarrhea, skin infection, snake bite etc.

The press conference was also attended by Chief engineer of PWD Rajib Debbarma, Chief Engineer of DWS Shyamlal Bhowmik and Mission Director of NHM Rajib Datta.