No reliable all weather highway even after 54 years of Statehood

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jun 21: Even 54 years after attaining Statehood, Manipur is yet to have a reliable all-weather highway.
The State has two lifelines-- the National Highway 2 which connects Imphal with Dimapur, and the National Highway-37 which connects Imphal with Badarpur, Assam via Jiribam.
While the condition of the Imphal-Dimapur highway is relatively good even though it is frequently blockaded, the only other highway--the Imphal-Jiribam stretch is far from being a reliable road.
Manipur became a full-fledged State of India on January 21, 1972. But, even after more than 54 years and 5 months, the Imphal-Jiribam road has not been made an all-weather road.
Filled with broken blacktop, knee-deep mud, sludges and crater-sized potholes, sometimes excavators are used to pull or push stuck vehicles on the road.
Jiribam to Imphal is around 200 kilometres. The journey on vehicles that could take only 6-8 hours is now taking days--2 days to be exact for loaded trucks to reach Imphal.
The condition is deplorable at a one-kilometre stretch near Irang bridge, Rengpang to Nungba section, Sibilong to Barak section and the stretch near Kaiphundai, said drivers who recently reached Imphal under security escorts.
Loaded trucks and vehicles plying the NH-37 are currently moved only under security escorts.
Sharing his experience, a driver said, the condition of the road is the worst during and after rainfall.
After rainfall, the road would be slippery and slushy. Vehicles get easily stuck. Sometimes, excavators are called on the spot to push stuck vehicles, he added.
While the condition is deplorable, the road is very narrow in many sections and only one vehicle can pass through it at a time, he said.
When vehicles coming from Imphal are passing a narrow stretch, all the other vehicles coming from the opposite direction (Jiribam) have to wait for hours. This usually takes hours depending on the number of vehicles passing and the condition of the road, he said.
This wait of the vehicles to pass usually takes hours, because only one vehicle at a time can drive through or pass the damaged section, he added.
While the poor condition of the road has been hindering normal commute and transport of goods and fuel, the traffic is sometimes disrupted by mudslides and landslides.
Speaking to this paper, All Manipur Road Transport Driver and Motor Workers' Union's general secretary, Maimom Anil Meitei, said truckers carrying goods and fuel on the NH-37 are facing extreme difficulties on the road.
While the traffic has increased on the NH-37 due to prolonged closure of the NH-2 due to blockades imposed by civil bodies, the pathetic condition of the road (NH-37) has hindered transport, he said.
The current condition of NH-37 clearly reflects negligence and poor main- tenance on the part of the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Cor- poration Limited (NHI-DCL), he stressed.
The NHIDCL seems to be ignoring the road and waiting for the contract period to be over, he said, asking if there is nobody in the State Government who could look into the maintenance of the highway by the NHIDCL.
While the road condition is a problem, the reduced number of security convoys has also impacted transport, he said.
A convoy of security personnel escorts around 150 vehicles. The number of the convoys was recently reduced to just one from 2 to 3 earlier.
Increasing the number of convoys may allow more vehicles to reach Imphal. Unless the number of convoys is increased, the State may continue to reel under shortages of essential goods, fuel and gas, he added.
Urging the NHIDCL and the Government to take appropriate measures urgently to repair the damaged sections of the NH-37, he suggested that the number of convoys may be increased by utilising the 10th and 11th IRB recruited to man the highways.