As expected with the monsoon season, our roads and highways have been badly affected with landslides reported from across the State. One can very well imagine the condition of our roads in other parts of the State given that the national highway linking commercial hub of Dimapur to the State Capital Kohima is as bad as the roads leading to our rice fields. While all of us are aware of the chronic problem of landslide along NH-29 especially near Kohima, it has come as unexpected to see the dangerous mud and stone slide near the Chumukedima police check gate. A heavy downpour on the night of August 12 appears to have been the last nail in the coffin so to say. The aftermath of this was clearly evident with newspapers coming out with the sorry state of the once famed national highway—destroyed by the falling mud and heavy boulders from above the adjoining mountain side. Every year we are faced with ‘bad roads’ in some portion of NH-29 between Dimapur and Kohima. However no one would have expected the smooth curves between Patkai Bridge and Kukidolong to be battered by the elements. And now that the unexpected has happened, the State government along with the other concern central agencies must seriously study the latest disaster at the infamous ‘paglapahar’ area of Chumukedima. This should involve a thorough survey of the entire stretch of the highway including the adjoining mountain and also the Chathe River below. The State government should take this exercise seriously so that the viability of the present stretch of this highway is ascertained and necessary steps taken including all safety measures.
While this column is not competent enough to pass any kind of advisory, nevertheless going by the magnitude of the present landslide disaster and also the deteriorating condition of the mountain side as seen from photographs, we need to actually for a moment sit down and ponder over whether our priority should be restoring traffic at the earliest or instead temporarily closing traffic given the risk of exposing lives to the possible disaster happening without notice. Luckily for many of us who commute along this vital road, the latest disaster happened when traffic was almost nil i.e. late night and early morning hours. Just imagine the scale of disaster had the landslide occurred during the day time. Is the government willing to put lives at risk by hurriedly opening this stretch of the road to traffic without first ascertaining the exact nature of the disaster? Maybe this is something for the government to pray and decide upon. Obviously the argument will be that this is the lifeline between Dimapur and beyond i.e. Kohima, the rest of the State and Manipur so we need to keep the road open to traffic. Yes if only the nature of the landslide in this area was not as dangerous or unforeseen as some of the other places along the NH-29. If we have to use this road, especially at this time of the year, then some precautionary steps will have to be adopted by the concern authority. The sound advisory issued in the local dailies by a group of geologists from the Nagaland University should be carefully noted by the government. This is also a good time for the government to be reminded on the need to develop alternative route/s between Dimapur and Kohima so that such incidents will not bring life to a stand still and traffic can continue as usual safely and smoothly!
While this column is not competent enough to pass any kind of advisory, nevertheless going by the magnitude of the present landslide disaster and also the deteriorating condition of the mountain side as seen from photographs, we need to actually for a moment sit down and ponder over whether our priority should be restoring traffic at the earliest or instead temporarily closing traffic given the risk of exposing lives to the possible disaster happening without notice. Luckily for many of us who commute along this vital road, the latest disaster happened when traffic was almost nil i.e. late night and early morning hours. Just imagine the scale of disaster had the landslide occurred during the day time. Is the government willing to put lives at risk by hurriedly opening this stretch of the road to traffic without first ascertaining the exact nature of the disaster? Maybe this is something for the government to pray and decide upon. Obviously the argument will be that this is the lifeline between Dimapur and beyond i.e. Kohima, the rest of the State and Manipur so we need to keep the road open to traffic. Yes if only the nature of the landslide in this area was not as dangerous or unforeseen as some of the other places along the NH-29. If we have to use this road, especially at this time of the year, then some precautionary steps will have to be adopted by the concern authority. The sound advisory issued in the local dailies by a group of geologists from the Nagaland University should be carefully noted by the government. This is also a good time for the government to be reminded on the need to develop alternative route/s between Dimapur and Kohima so that such incidents will not bring life to a stand still and traffic can continue as usual safely and smoothly!
