The fear of vehicle damage remains omnipresent at Purana Bazaar main road.
Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 19
Apart from disrupting the flow of traffic, Dimapur’s dismal roads have been a cause of many other troubles for citizens. The pathetic condition of roadways in the town has been a frequently highlighted issue; however, no tangible action has been seen on the government’s part.
Over the past year, the ever present traffic problem in Dimapur has extended to areas relatively removed from the town centre. One particular area is the National Highway stretch that runs through Purana Bazaar. The stretch of road has been in pitiable condition for many months and inconvenience has transformed itself into a burden. The stretch has developed numerous large potholes that a motorist says, “Needs rally driving skills to tackle.”
“Minor collisions have been frequent in this stretch,” says a shopkeeper who looks at the road with disdain. Among, a motorist who has to travel through this stretch every day, states that he has had to repair his vehicle almost every month. “The cost of maintenance has increased due to the bad roads.” The bad patch lies in a road where vehicles usually cruise at increased speeds. Hence, sudden braking causes cars at the back to bump into the car in front. Shopkeepers near the road testify to this fact and say that many such incidents occur almost every day.
The condition worsens at night where vehicles arriving at a brisk pace fail to notice the giant craters and drive over them at considerable speed. One motorist recalls how two rims of his car were completely cracked, leaving him stranded on the road at night. Another motorist claims that one of his rear axles snapped off while hitting the pothole. He adds with a smile, “No wonder there are no speed limits here. The fear of having your car collapse acts as an effective deterrent.”
Garage owners also say that there has been an increase in the number of customers coming for maintenance of vehicles. While some of them complain their vehicles got damaged while driving on potholed roads, others claim their vehicles met with an accident on dug up roads. One garage owner says that most vehicles suffer not from engine problems but rather due to the bad road conditions.
The Purana Bazaar stretch is only a tiny snapshot of the epidemic that runs through Dimapur’s roadways. While the never ending political rhetoric has consistently called for better roads in Nagaland, no substantial effort has been seen.
