Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, JUL 7 (NPN): Authorities have clarified that no major landslide or rockfall occurred on the National Highway-29 (Tsiedukhru stretch), contrary to claims in a viral video that triggered panic among commuters on Monday evening.
Following the circulation of the video, the district administration, traffic police and National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) conducted a joint inspection on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media after the inspection, ACP (Traffic) Peter Shuya said the highway remained open to traffic but urged motorists to exercise extreme caution, particularly during rainfall, as the stretch remains highly vulnerable to rockfalls during the monsoon.
“Precautions must always be taken while travelling. At present, the situation is normal, but during rain people need to be very careful. If rocks begin to fall, it can become extremely dangerous,” he said.
Shuya said the district administration was expected to issue a formal travel advisory and warned that authorities would immediately close the affected stretch if heavy rain or major rockfalls posed a threat to commuters.
He said only minor rockfalls had been reported at isolated locations and that no incident of the scale depicted in the viral video was found during the ground inspection. “Despite the heavy rain, we did not find any major incident like the one shown in the video. We suspect it is an old video being recirculated because nothing of that scale was seen during today’s inspection,” he said.
ACP said debris had been cleared from around five vulnerable locations, including near the Chümoukedima police check post, in coordination with NHIDCL to ensure uninterrupted traffic movement. He added that mobile patrol teams had been deployed round-the-clock along the highway to monitor conditions, while commuters had been advised not to stop or park in landslide-prone areas.
NHIDCL officials also dismissed claims that the viral video reflected the present situation on the highway.
DGM NHIDCL Manish Kumar said the footage was “certainly not from yesterday” and reiterated that regular inspections had found only small debris at two or three locations.
“We observed only small debris at two or three locations, nothing like what is shown in the viral clip,” he said, adding that the agency was not investigating the source of the video but could confirm that it did not depict the current ground reality.
Following the inspection, NHIDCL identified two major vulnerable locations along with a few minor rockfall spots. As a precaution, the agency has proposed closing the left-hand carriageway along the Tsiedukhru stretch and diverting traffic onto the right-hand carriageway, which will temporarily function as a two-lane road.
Kumar said the district administration would issue a formal notification once the traffic diversion plan was finalised.
He also informed that maintenance contractors had been stationed along the highway throughout the monsoon to conduct daily inspections and immediately clear debris whenever rockfalls occurred.
Responding to concerns arising from last year’s landslides that claimed lives and disrupted traffic on NH-29, NHIDCL rejected allegations that poor construction quality had contributed to the disaster.
NHIDCL engineer George said the incident had been declared a natural disaster by the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and maintained that the highway works were not substandard.
He said NHIDCL was preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the entire 45-km stretch from Tsiedukhru to the Jotsoma Bypass, proposing permanent mitigation measures such as bridges, tunnels and other engineering interventions at vulnerable locations.
The agency also said contractors engaged under all three project packages had been directed to conduct regular inspections and take proactive measures to minimise disruptions during the monsoon.
NHIDCL appealed to the public not to rely on unverified social media content and assured that every effort was being made to ensure the safety of commuters along the highway.