Roads crumble as violence lingers

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Aug 28: While an unprecedented violent crisis has been besieging the State since May 3 and the Govern-ment’s attention focused on restoring peace and normal-cy, many major and important roads of the State have crumbled to pathetic level.
The violent crisis brought all development activities including construction and maintenance of roads to a standstill. As a result, many roads in both the hills and the valley have  broken down and deteriorated.
The condition of roads is equally bad in Imphal city too, thereby causing many difficulties and inconvenience to the public.
Potholes and broken patches now define many important and busy roads including Paona Keithel road, Pologround road, Governor road, Nagamapal, Kangla Park stretch, Dingku Road, Khurai Lamlong, Porompat Ayangpalli Road,  different sections of Mayai Lambi leading to Samurou and Wangoi from Keisham-pat, Wangkhei-Yairipok road via Bamon Kampu, Liwa Road under Langtha-bal AC, Wahengbam Leikai-Sagolband Tera road, Tera Sayang Keithel road, Lamphel, Uripok and Thangmeiband roads.
The Government started repairing/constructing these roads before May but all construction activities came to a grinding halt after the violent crisis erupted on May 3.
Since then, no road construction activities have been initiated.
These roads have worn out further with the arrival of rainfall. Now puddles can be seen on different sections of these roads.
Some of these puddles are more than two feet deep and they often turn out to be major causes of road mishaps.
Potholes now adorn the Kangla Park road from GM Hall to Khoyathong.
Expressing strong displeasure over the existing condition of Paona Keithel road, some shopkeepers told The Sangai Express that the Government is unlikely to repair the road until and unless the ongoing violence ends.
They said that nobody wants to buy anything from  the Paona Keithel shops and stores because the entire length of the road has broken down to a pathetic level.
The road leading to Pologround from BT Road is also full of potholes.
Some shopkeepers of Pologround lamented that the particular road has worn out to the extreme.
They said that no maintenance or repairing work has been done on the road for quite a long time.
Over the years, the road has become a matter of shame for the whole State in front of foreign tourists who often visit Pologround.  
This road is no longer fit for movement of any type of vehicle, the shopkeepers said.  
Being rainy season, the road looks like a body of water. As hundreds of vehicles including diesel auto-rickshaws try to avoid this water body, traffic jams  have become a regular scene, they said.  They urged the Government to repair the road by at least filling up the depressed portion until it is fully repaired.