Rourkela: Chunaghati stretch on NH-520, a busy transport corridor, has become extremely accident-prone as the frequency of mishaps taking place on this hilly stretch of road is very high. The NH-520 links Koira and Rajamunda. Chunaghati stretch is situated between Jamdihi and Toda. This road is famous for the transportation of minerals, mainly iron ore mined from this mineral-rich region. Hundreds of heavy to very heavy vehicles carrying minerals ply every day on this particular stretch of the national highway. The latest mishap took place August 8 when a local truck and a hyva collided. Two people got stuck in the mangled vehicles.
After four hours of hard labour and rescue efforts using different machinery and gas cutters, the duo had a miraculous save. They were later shifted to Rourkela for further treatment. The available data shows more than 30 persons on this stretch have either died or survived accidents with loss of limbs leaving them disabled.
Notably, the topography of the hilly road is slightly different from other roads. The slope here is very long making it difficult to manoeuvre when heavily loaded vehicles move the slope. Besides, there are deep gorges on either side of the road in some places. Sometimes, trucks catch fire after accidents. In addition, mobile network coverage is very erratic on the entire stretch.
Owing to this fact, emergency services like police, ambulance, and fire brigade take time to reach here. The news gets spread only when any of the locals living down the hilly road discovers the mishap. Locals complain that accidents are occurring frequently largely due to the faulty construction of the road. However, an NHAI official said, “It is not faulty construction; rather the road is very different from regular hilly stretches making people think that it is faulty.” A local Parsu Oram said, “At least mobile network coverage should be strengthened so that someone can at least relay the information soon and rescue and other emergency services can reach there early.” Bonai SDPO Swaraj Debata could not be reached for his comment on the situation as his phone went unanswered
