Arunachal: HC gives PWD two months to complete Papu Nallah-Nirjuli road work

Guwahati: The Itanagar Permanent Bench of the Gauhati High Court has given Arunachal’s PWD (Highway) Department two months to complete maintenance work on the Papu Nallah-Nirjuli road, according to a report by The Arunachal Times.

The court’s order came after the PWD informed that maintenance work had begun and a new contractor had been appointed, as the previous firm, Woodhill Shivam, failed to carry out the work.

Earlier, the court had given Woodhill Shivam one month to finish the maintenance, but the deadline was missed. On October 13, the contractor consented to allow another agency to take over.

M/s Tama Fabrication Works has now been assigned the maintenance of the Papu Nallah-Nirjuli stretch, with a completion timeline of 60 days.

The court has instructed the department to submit a status report on the progress by December 3.

The department also informed the court that the completion deadline for the flyover and highway under Package B has been extended to July 2026.

The order was passed by a division bench of Justices Kardak Ete and Marli Vankung during the hearing of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 11/2024, filed in July 2024 by Vijay Jamoh and Doge Lona, residents of Naharlagun. Senior advocate Dicky Panging represented the petitioners.

The petitioners had raised concerns over delays in the construction of the Papu Nallah-Nirjuli road and sought the court’s intervention to speed up the project.

Slow progress on Package B, which runs from Papu Nallah to Nirjuli, has caused significant inconvenience to residents of the Itanagar Capital Region, despite repeated assurances from the state government.