Rock blasted to widen Ranchi to Jamshedpur highway

RANCHI: In order to remove a large rock through blasting on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway (NH-33), traffic was blocked near Taimara valley under Dasam valley police station on Thursday.
Commuters did not have to face much inconvenience as vehicular movement was blocked on the stretch for only 20 minutes, with the construction company finishing all preparations before the blockade was set up.
"A team of 25 persons, including explosive experts and engineers, conducted a controlled blast and removed the debris within a period of 20 minutes so that commuters are not stuck on the highway for a longer period. We had also deployed two police teams on both sides of the blast site to manage the traffic which was restored within half an hour," said Dasam police station in-charge Dinesh Kumar Mahli.
The rock had to be blasted as it prevented levelling works of a stretch of the road that saw several accidents in the past. Construction company officials along with police barricaded the road around 2.30pm and blasted the rock which was a part of the hill on which the valley lies.
Site engineer Subodh Sharma said, "The levelling of the highway stretch falling under Taimara valley was part of the design to reduce the height of the road and remove black spot from the said stretch to bring it at par with rest of the highway as it is an accident-prone zone."
The construction company has to reduce the height of the road to the tune of 16m and the road has to be widened to 18m from the current 5.5m. "The geographical situation of the valley is the reason for the accidents and that is why we had to reduce the height of the stretch in order to bring it to the level of the rest of the stretch. We have completed one side of the lane and after removing the rocks, we will complete the widening work," added Sharma.