After a boulder crushed a vehicle and killed its occupants on the Shillong-Dawki hill road, the Meghalaya High Court commissioned an inspection. The amicus curiae found that the contractor had installed thin wooden sticks tied with safety tape as the barrier between moving traffic and unguarded cliff drops. The court called the work 'shabby and unscientific.' An expert found the contractor had been selected on 'financial capability,' not expertise in hill roads.
The Meghalaya High Court was already hearing a PIL on the Shillong-Dawki hill road when a boulder crushed a vehicle and killed its occupants. A court-appointed amicus inspected the site on May 14 and tendered a report with photographs. The carriageway was covered with loose mud and debris, 'rendering it barely motorable and extremely dangerous.' For barriers between live traffic and deep drop-offs, the contractor had erected thin wooden sticks tied together with safety tape — structures offering, per the amicus, 'absolutely no physical restraint.' Signage consisted of flex banners reading 'drive slow' stapled into a fog-prone zone where excavators were actively operating during traffic hours. NHIDCL submitted its own expert assessment, which found a 'very lame and non-engineering explanation' for the steep slope cuts, warned that continuing un-engineered work would cause 'catastrophic damage,' and noted that the contractor had been selected based on 'financial capability' — not hill road expertise. The DPR itself was described as defective. The court said it was 'evident that the work is not being done as is required' and directed the state's chief officers to convene and ensure completion 'at the earliest, without compromising on the safety of people.' The road remained open. The next hearing was scheduled for June 3.