Dr. Asangba Tzüdir
The year 1984 saw Kolkata Metro starting commercial operations and it was the first rail network in the country to have underground network. It just did not happen overnight. The initiative had to wait for two decades when in 1969 the Metropolitan Transport Project was initiated. The master plan prepared by them in 1971 envisaged a network of 97.50 kms consisting of three North-South corridors. What is interesting here is that the initiative had to wait for two decades before the work finally began.
Now, coming to our own Dimapur, the gateway and the commercial hub of Nagaland, she is heavily bearing the burden of rapid urbanization and its associated problems. The growing number of vehicles coupled with the absence of proper parking lot has only further augmented the problem of traffic congestion in spite of the much improved or to say, the best efforts of the traffic police to ease the traffic flow. Back then, the opening of the flyover must have been such a relief; its completion took such a long time that the denizens would have found it hard to imagine its completion.
It may seem unthinkable at the present juncture to imagine and envisage an underground metro rail in the city running till Chumukedima. Quite a daring dream to see even in ones wildest dream considering the present ‘crisis’ of development and caught up in a mental block that makes it difficult to carve out a way forward.
There is no harm in having a wild imagination of “Imag(in)ing” a Dimapur with underground metro train. In terms of applicability, it would seem a difficult proposition to think of how great cities have been rebuilt, and to take that as a parameter towards replicating such kind of efforts towards visualizing our own kind of development. Take the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how the cities were rebuild from ashes.
Kohima went through the turmoil and horrors of the World War II of the Burma Campaign leaving Kohima destroyed. Charles Pawsey remarked, “Nagas saw glimpses of modernity through the war.” The impact is felt still, the imagination will never be erased but the destruction of the battle opened up alternative ways of development giving a new outlook and starting life afresh.
Here the ‘magnitude’ for metro is about creating space. It may take decades to even accept the idea of metro in the city. When it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects, besides the cost, people should be able to accept and allow the huge level of displacement if at all besides other issues. The process of rehabilitation will be another pertinent issue that will require urgent attention. Auto rickshaws will be forced off the roads but it sure will inject alternative ways to earn one’s livelihood while at the same time easing the traffic to a great extent. Besides the associated problems, one may also, even as a passing thought, think about a smooth hassle free underground metro ride from Dimapur to Chumukedima. It may be only a dream or a wishful thinking today.
There is still a long way to go before even thinking about metro in Dimapur; to think about digging underground when we are still grappling with the amorphous nature of the problems overground. But we need to broaden the horizons of our thought and to start ‘thinking smart’ and ‘acting smart’ for a better Dimapur and for a better Nagaland. Therein lie our moral responsibility and the credibility of being a social animal.
(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir is an Editor with Heritage Publishing House. He contributes a weekly guest editorial to the Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
