By Imkong Walling
Utter exhilaration it was when the ceremonial stone for four-laning the Dimapur to Kohima segment of the NH-29 was unveiled in 2015 by the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari. It was a 12 year-old promise come true.
The almost Rs 1200 cr (at the time) project promised cutting travel time, calling forth cinematic images of an absolute breeze of a ride on a previously unthought-of, wide all-weather road that could handle 4 vehicles side-by-side, surrounded by a picturesque landscape. Reality said otherwise, soon after, as excavations began.
What the Government of Nagaland and the developer, the people included, failed to consider was the weak soil in a region known for heavy rainfall. This was the first mistake, calling to question the government’s intellect and the developer’s geotechnical know-how.
Given a naturally weak lithology, state-based geoscientists not connected to the project have warned of the 4-lane’s vulnerability to landslips. Nature has proven them right, time after time, as landslips became the order of the day, while costs and time mounted, with neither the developer nor the government offering any tangible solution, setting the stage for a lame game of culpability with hardly anyone buying their stories.
The fundamental mistake, however, was blindly grabbing a development dole-out from Delhi, all for the money, without considering the consequences. There was no contemplation. There was no weighing the sustainability of making a thousand crore 4-lane road on weak terrain, against the cost efficiency of retaining the existing 2-lane, while simultaneously improving the available alternative routes at more or less the same cost, if not lower.
The lure of big money, alongwith the legendary ‘cuts’ was too much to ignore, ensuring the sidelining of science and safety. It ensured the requisite Right of Way was not acquired, resulting in cutting sheer cliffs, out of an already unstable soil, dangerously exposed, and overlooking the road. All this while, no governmental effort was made to call this out.
What was touted to be a road to growth and progress turned into a liability, and with damage done already, it will be so for a long time to come.
The state government, this time, has a fall guy in the form of the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), unlike in the 2-lane era, when Chief Ministers and PWD Ministers had none to point the finger at but the weather and an archaic land-holding system.
Today, the government is training the gun on a no less culpable developer— the NHIDCL. The latter conveniently blaming it on a myriad of troubles, ranging from absurd claims to some, well, visible and understandable factors.
The mature option would have been the moral gumption to admit, “Yes, we have messed up and we assure to mitigate the mess.”
Meanwhile, the CM and his Hornbill Festival cronies had the hide to turn out for a photo-op at a make-believe cultural fairground. All the while, infrastructure crumbled and families grieved.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
