Imkong Walling
The COVID-19 pandemic has hogged the limelight the year so far. The entire world has been so caught up with the new corona virus, while news agencies continue to dedicate copious reams of newsprint and airtime to the biggest health hazard to have faced human kind in a hundred years.
It seemed like governments have forgotten its other chores, when on August 21, there was a deviation from the COVID talk in the Nagaland government’s corridors of power.
The news was of the state government talking about road expansions, new roads, multi-purpose parking lots and overpasses to ease traffic congestion, particularly, in Dimapur and Kohima.
It came from none other than the Minister for Planning & Coordination, Neiba Kronu, who made the announcement coinciding with the release of a first of its kind (for Nagaland) ‘Geospatial Water Resource Map’ of the state prepared by the GIS & Remote Sensing Centre, Kohima with funding from the North Eastern Council.
The Minister seemed quite serious when he said, “We cannot continue to go on like this. We have to do something to ease traffic congestion in Kohima and Dimapur.” He also stated that the state government will be taking up the matter of funding with the Union Government.
For the commoners, who read the news, it was like a draft of cool air on a hot summer day.
The talk about easing traffic congestion was, however, just a side snack. The bigger news was of the ‘Geospatial Map’ and its implications to harvesting Nagaland’s water resources and other infrastructure development. To paraphrase the Minister, it would serve as a technological extension of the senses for the Departments dealing with water, land, energy, disaster management, besides others.
A work of immense value without doubt and due credit must go to the people at the GIS & Remote Sensing Centre, whose dedication ensured the mapping project saw the light of day.
The question is how far would the government go to ensure that this work finds use?
The state has several road development projects in perpetual state of construction, hydro-electricity projects stuck on the drawing board, irrigation projects that have hardly found use and drinking water projects with no takers.
As far as remedying traffic woes by building flyovers in Dimapur and ring roads in Kohima is concerned, talks have cropped up time and again over the years, albeit, with nil concrete steps forward. Back in the 90s, in Dimapur, there was talk of a bridge from the New Field inter-state check-post over passing the railway track to connect with the New Dhansiri Bridge. Some ten years ago, further talk of building new flyovers in Dimapur was the centre piece of a District Planning Board meeting, well attended by legislators. It never took off.
Development pronouncements sound good to the ear, but, given Nagaland’s track record, proclamations from the highest echelons of policy-making have remained mere lip-service and at best, pipe dreams.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
