Golaghat: A heavy downpour turned the road leading to Lovlina Borgohain’s home in Assam completely muddy on Friday, shortly after she outclassed Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen to assure India a boxing medal in the women’s welterweight category at the Tokyo Olympics.
The ‘kuccha’ (unmetalled) road to the 23-year-old boxer’s home, located at Sarupathar in Golaghat district of Assam, had now been under repair by the Public Works Department (PWD) before she returns to cheer Assam’s first Olympic medal winner.
“Our area has been declared drought-hit this season. But on the day of Lovlina’s quarter-final match, it rained heavily and turned the road to her home muddy and unmotorable,” said Biswajit Phukan, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Sarupathar.
“I spoke to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma about it and decided to make the road motorable. We are now busy ensuring that it is repaired before she returns from Tokyo. It will be metalled once the monsoon season is over,” he added.
Borgohain’s house is about three kilometers from the nearest town, Barpathar. While some of the roads had been graveled, nearly two kilometers of it was completely muddy. Workers had been currently repairing approximately 600 meters of the final stretch leading to the boxer’s home.
The Sarupathar assembly constituency, which includes Baromukhia village, is Assam’s largest, but it also has included some of the worst roads. According to Phukan, the constituency currently consist of 2000 kilometers of mud roads.
“Till a few years back, the road to our village was very bad. Last year, after Lovlina qualified for the Olympics, the Golaghat deputy commissioner visited our home and assured us to do something. He did get some sand and gravel laid on the road, but not more than that,” said Lovlina’s father Tiken Borgohain.
“On Friday, after Lovlina’s match, local MLA Phukan called and assured that work on the road will be completed soon. Starting from our home, workers are busy filling the 600-meter stretch with sand and gravel at present. We are happy,” he added.
Tiken is very confident of her daughter making it to the final on August 4 and give a shot for the gold. Both the parents did not watch any of their daughter’s matches live on television. Even though they have a TV at home, they wait for the game to end before learning the outcome.
“There’s a lot of emotion involved watching a match live. We are happy that Lovlina has won her bouts and is assured of a medal. But her mother and I won’t be watching the next two matches as well,” said Borgohain.
