Imkong Walling
A month back, there was news of India beating a road-building world record previously held by Qatar. The feat, certified by the Guinness World Records, was the laying of a 75km stretch of single lane in Maharashtra. Said to have been completed in less than 4 and a half days, it was hard to not awe at the impressive feat, which was announced by a gloating MoRTH Minister.
As the news sunk in, it was also hard not to fall to the temptation of comparison, juxtaposing the pace of infrastructure projects in other states of the country to Nagaland’s. The notoriously slow SARDP-NE 2-lane, the Dimapur-Kohima 4-lane and others not related to roads, but still infrastructure projects, came to mind.
Apologists argue that it is unjustified to compare infrastructure projects taken up in hilly terrain with others in states with generally level topography. Together with the terrain argument, a good dose of other factors are put into the mix, explaining away the reasons for the excruciatingly slow pace of public works.
Nagaland though has had a road refurbishment and expansion project not long ago in the form of the Dimapur-Chümoukedima 4-lane. Stretching a length of only 17.3km in level terrain, the now completed project, which was tipped to be worth Rs 500cr at start, overshot the original one year completion deadline of by well over a year.
The incomplete Multi-Disciplinary Sports Complex in Dimapur, ambitiously unveiled by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio during his first term, almost two decades ago, is another project that comes to mind. There is a regional football academy in Seithekema C, named after the legendary Dr T Ao. Lest it gets lost in the combined public memory, it has been four years since the ceremonial foundation stone for the academy was laid by the incumbent Chief Minister in June 2018.
There is the High Court Complex, a project in a perennial state of construction, and not forgetting the Kohima Medical College. The latter, sanctioned by the Union government in 2014, struggles to put a date to begin academic classes as construction drags on, while projected dates frequently keeps changing. Fingers remain crossed on the Mon Medical College with some Rs 230cr released by the Centre to the state government, as in May 2022, for the project worth an estimated Rs 325cr.
The wretched state affairs are known and reported, only that, it hardly ruffles feathers. Only on July 9, state Governor, Prof Jagdish Mukhi was quoted in a press release from Raj Bhavan expressing concern on the delayed High Court Complex and Kohima Medical College. But then again, Mukhi is not the first Governor to flag concern over development projects going haywire in Nagaland.
It is a system where a Governor’s reprimand is just another opinion. It is a place where judicial directive gets sidestepped as easily as a Governor’s, a system nurtured by decades of willful disregard (to public interest) by all, party to the mess.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
