ISBT : A concrete mess of dirt and slush At the stage of ‘revival’

The PR administration has been candid. Candid enough to admit that what the Inter-State Bus Terminus needs today is a revival and not some cosmetic changes that may give the idea that it is up on its feet. On October 3, Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Bajpai inspected the ISBT and on October 6 The Sangai Express was able to run a story that talked of the ideas and proposals that have been thrown around to revive bus terminus. The PR regime has at least not thrown in the towel yet and what is refreshing is the admission that the ISBT needs a revival. Admitting ailment is the best way forward to deal with a malaise for ISBT today stands crippled and horribly deformed. A point which was not admitted or even studied when Manipur had a popularly elected Government. Not even 10 years but ISBT today is a decrepit urban structure with no life, except the mud and slush when it rains and clouds of dust when it does not. The Sangai Express has already published at least two stories on the  sorry state of the ISBT and this was before Manipur went up in flames on May 3, 2023 and there was no indication at all that the then Government had taken note of the huge, concrete structure that has been left to rot on its own. The ISBT was formally thrown open for public use in 2016, that is a good five years after it was inaugurated in 2011. Inaugurated just before the 2012 Assembly elections and then shut and forget. This was how it was back then and in between The Sangai Express reported on the state of the inaugurated but not yet opened ISBT with good reason. One particular report that continues to stick in mind is the one which showed the unopened ISBT decorated with human excreta. Inaugurated in 2011 and opened for public use only in 2016 to now coming to a stage when the talk is now about reviving the ISBT and the curse on the ISBT continues, despite the talk of revival beginning to do the round. Other than the sorry state to which it has been reduced to today, the rational of choosing the heart of Imphal city for the ISBT can be and should be questioned. Manipur must be the only State where the ISBT is located plum in the heart of its capital and this has not helped matters at all. The coming up of the ISBT did not in any way address the question of whether passenger buses coming from Moirang and Churachandpur side would be accommodated at the ISBT. If it was designed to do that then would the busy Dingku Road be able to accommodate the buses coming from this side ? How about buses and other passenger vehicles coming from Thoubal and Kakching side ? Or is the ISBT set up to accommodate only the vehicles coming from Senapati, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul side ? The point is, the location of the ISBT was wrong in the first place even if it is meant only for inter-State vehicles, such passenger buses and taxis plying on the Imphal-Dimapur-Guwahati-Shillong route.
It was during the Covid pandemic that the ISBT came under severe strain as all the goods trucks had to report there after coming from outside the State. The wear and tear, not only inside the terminus but even on the roads leading to it, could be seen and Imphal had to bear with the severe inconveniences long after the full impact of the pandemic had blown over. While Dingku Road has been repaired in patches, the ISBT has seen no major touches at all. At the moment Winger taxis and buses which ply on the Imphal-Ukhrul road drop and pick up passengers, not inside the terminus, but on the outer ring. Anyone dropping passengers bound for Ukhrul would have faced the condition of the ISBT first hand. A shame it is that while the Covid pandemic had petered off by 2022, nothing was done to repair ISBT, the roads within which had been turned into mud and slush. From 2016 to 2025 and in a span of nine years nothing was done to keep the ISBT as a place fit for buses to pick up and drop passengers. The failure of the Government cannot be seen more clearly than the state to which ISBT has been reduced to.