Just three years after its inauguration as part of a major city beautification drive, a large section of the tiled footpath on Rohini Kanta Baruah (RKB) Road, the main arterial road of Dibrugarh, suddenly caved in on Monday morning. The collapse occurred in the heart of the city, directly below the Domino’s Pizza restaurant in front of the City Regency building, at approximately 10.30 am. Miraculously, despite a heavy rush of people typical of the bustling time, no one was injured.
Alarmingly, this incident marks the second such structural failure on the RKB Road within the last two months. A similar slab failed near the Woodland shoe showroom recently, a section that authorities took nearly a month to repair, necessitating a prolonged cordon-off period for the public’s safety.
The affected footpath is part of a flagship project inaugurated in 2022. The 2.48-km long tiled pathway, stretching from Thana Chariali to NH-37, was constructed at a substantial cost of Rs 12-crore under the State Government’s City Infra Development Fund (CIDF) scheme. The project featured drains on both sides made 1.5 metres deep and wide footpaths measuring 2.5 metres across, finished with colourful synthetic tiles, stainless steel railings, and solar lights.
The repeated structural failures have not only caused surprise but have triggered widespread public concern over the quality of construction, leading many locals to question the engineering integrity of the expensive public works.
Bhaskar Saikia, a local resident expressed his frustration. “How can a project that cost Rs 12-crore and is only three years old be collapsing like this?This is a clear case of public money going down the drain. The government must immediately launch a high-level inquiry into the construction quality and hold the contractors and supervising engineers accountable. It’s sheer luck that nobody fell into that deep ditch today.”
The collapse of the footpath tiles has now placed the entire beautification project under intense public scrutiny, with calls mounting for immediate and permanent corrective action.
