On Friday, soon after Lovlina Borgohain outclassed Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen to seal a bronze medal in the women’s welterweight category in boxing at Tokyo Olympics and entered the semi-finals, a heavy downpour turned the road leading to her home in Assam completely muddy.
Now, in an attempt to cheer Assam’s first Olympic medal winner, her family and residents of Baromukhia village, the ‘kuccha’ (unmetalled) road to the 23-year-old boxer's home, located at Sarupathar in Golaghat district of Assam is being repaired by the public works department (PWD) before she returns.
“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.
Lovlina’s home is located around 3 kms from Barpathar, the nearest town. While some portions of the road are gravelled, nearly 2 kms of it is completely muddy. Around 600 metres of the last stretch that leads to the boxer’s home is being repaired by workers now.
{{/usCountry}}Lovlina’s home is located around 3 kms from Barpathar, the nearest town. While some portions of the road are gravelled, nearly 2 kms of it is completely muddy. Around 600 metres of the last stretch that leads to the boxer’s home is being repaired by workers now.
{{/usCountry}}Sarupathar assembly constituency in which Baromukhia village falls is the biggest in Assam and it also has some of the worst roads. According to Phukan, the constituency has nearly 2000 kms of mud roads at present.
“Till 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 metre stretch with sand and gravel at present. We are happy,” he added.
Speaking about Lovlina’s semi-final match on August 4, Borgohain said that the boxer is in a very confident state of mind and expects to win it and enter the finals for a shot at gold.
Both Lovlina’s father and her mother Mamoni aren’t watching any of their daughter’s matches live on television. Though they have a TV at home, they wait for the match to be over to get news of its result.
“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.