Veroli Zhimo
There aren’t many words that sum up today’s economic growth paradigm in Nagaland better than ‘infrastructure.’
Policymakers have been pushing the consensus that infrastructure is the critical ingredient for economic development and launching one new project after the other. On the other hand, almost every day, adjectives like dilapidated, forlorn, abandoned, neglected, crumbling, etc., are frequently used to describe many of the state’s existing public infrastructure ranging from buildings, roads, bridges, and so on.
Recently, the state-run morgue at Kohima, in its state of perpetual disrepair, has become a byword for the stunning failure of the Nagaland state machinery towards the upkeep of existing infrastructure.
It also underscores not only the irony of Nagaland’s race towards ‘development’ but also the government’s obsession for new infrastructural projects when it cannot even gather the administrative will nor the funds to maintain the most basic health facility in the state capital.
The same can be said about the State’s higher than average share of roadways and bridges in poor condition. Similarly, water lines, electrical grids, public buildings - the very network of our state, in most cases, are several decades old and badly showing their age.
It was only in July 2017 that the ageing bridge over the Chathe River at 4th Mile connecting Dimapur with Niuland ADC sub-division caved in and claimed at least four and injured five others. This led to a flurry of activity in the Road and Bridges department as it scrambled to inspect structural stability of the other bridges and make repairs or construct new ones where necessary.
Subsequently, foundations for a new bridge alongside the old Nagarjan Bridge and the Old Dhansiri Bridge connecting Supermarket area with Purana Bazar were laid.
But three years later, the new bridges are yet to be completed and the old ‘reinforced’ ones continue to age.
There is also the long overdue multi-crore four-lane project between Kohima and Dimapur that has been under construction for the past 5-6 years, the two-lane road project under SARDP-NE (Chakhabama-Zunheboto via Chozuba sub-division and Pfutsero-Phek), and many other major road projects in other parts of the state, which are laden with bad debt and limited utilization; short-term construction booms followed by protracted busts.
While not unique to Nagaland, the state government has tendencies to impose an idealized vision of development through domestic infrastructural push. The rhetoric on expected returns of such projects in propelling the state towards progressive economic growth seem misplaced when juxtaposed with the apparent failure and policies for their maintenance.
A state with crumbling educational institutions and dilapidated healthcare facilities will not fare better just because there are newer and wider roads. Likewise, wider roads can do nothing for the state’s emerging sportspersons who only have neglected sports stadiums to practice in and, rural farmers cannot reap any benefits when their village approach roads continue to remain in deplorable condition.
New infrastructure development is a necessary, but not sufficient, element in the state or country’s development and existing infrastructure cannot be left in disrepair.
The two must be seen hand-in-hand.
Repairing, replacing and renovating must be an urgent priority if the state really wants to push an infrastructure-led growth model.
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