Three officials of construction company abducted in Assam

Even as construction companies are demanding extra security for work to resume on the Lumding-Maibong stretch of the ‘East-West Corridor Project’, news has emerged that three more officials of a construction company have been abducted.

Suspected members of the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dimasa Halam Daogah (DHD) militant group, also known as ‘Black Widow’, are thought to have abducted the three officials of the Inter Continental Construction Company when they were travelling from Lumding to Haflong, sources said.

The incident took place days after chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, visited the strife-torn district and directed the Army to launch an offensive against the ‘Black Widow’ group.

Today’s incident is likely to cast a shadow on the fate of the highway project, which has been lying idle for almost a year as construction companies are facing a huge resistance from the ‘Black Widow’ group, which has made it impossible for them to execute the work on the Rs 800-crore NC Hills stretch of the highway project, commissioned by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

Recently, major construction companies, namely Gammon India, Valecha Engineering, TBL and Inter Continental Engineering Corporation, had threatened to pull out of the project due to the deteriorating security scenario in the area.

The NHAI had commissioned the construction of 150 km of National Highway from Maibong to Lumding 30 months ago. Only a small amount of the project work has been completed till date due to the problems caused by the militancy situation. When completed, the entire ‘East-West Corridor’ will connect Silchar, in South Assam, with Porbandar in Gujarat.