Lack of Vision has Clogged Shillong
Shillong can no longer bear the strain of traffic within city limits and
also its outskirts and even along the full stretch of national highway
40 connecting it Guwahati, national highway 44 connecting it with Jowai
and other parts of southern Assam including the Cachar district and
other states of Tripura and Mizoram with speeding trucks on the national
highway 40 numbering fifteen to twenty thousand passing through twenty
four hours a day.
It has all gone awry since the times
when the Khasi states of Ri Hynniewtrep had provided routes for traders
in far away markets especially the plains of adjacent Bengal. During the
British period, David Scott had also started work on the route linking
Guwahati in the Assam Valley with the Surma Valley in the Sylhet region
of what is now Bangladesh during the mid – nineteenth century. It was
not until the year 1887 that a Tonga service was opened connecting
Shillong and Guwahati on November 6th called the Shillong – Guwahati
Daily Passenger Service. The Tonga service took one day while bullock
cart services took three days to cover the journey of 64 miles.
The first motor service on the Guwahati –
Shillong road was started in 1905 with two deluxe cars named ‘Rani’ and
‘Maharani’ by Khan Bahadur Kasimmuddin Molla. The Planers Store took
over the service in 1911 and the Commercial Carrying Company continued
the service from 1921. Sohra (Cherrapunjee) the world’s wettest spot
frequented by tourists and visitors was linked by cart services from
Mawsmai to Shillong in 1894, a distance of 35 miles.
These therefore are the main arteries of Shillong especially national
highway 40 which has now become a nightmare for travellers because of
the traffic jams occurring almost every day. On January 14th this year,
the Union Minister of State for Water Resources was caught in such a jam
which lasted for two days and the minister reached Shillong on a
friend’s motorcycle. Commercial trucks carrying essential commodities
were stranded in the snarl and a woman who was to be shifted to a
hospital lost her life as the vehicle in which she was travelling could
not budge. The State Home Minister H. Donkupar R. Lyngdoh who is also in
charge of the Public Works Department had blamed the cold weather of
winter saying that the drivers of the diesel trucks found it difficult
to start the engines of their vehicles at such low temperatures. The
Minister of Urban Affairs Ampareen Lyngdoh also got stuck in a massive
traffic jam along the Sohra – Shillong road in Upper Shillong and
reached her office at the Secretariat as a pillion rider on a police
motorcycle.
The situation in the Shillong streets and the linking roads and highways
has become impossible to deal with as more and more people have
developed a craze to buy cars in spite of the congestion. Till the month
of September 2011, the total registration of vehicles in the East Khasi
Hills alone has shot up to 88369. The traffic police are finding it
difficult to manage the growing traffic. At present, there are 220
traffic police personnel under the Shillong Traffic Police and an
additional enforcement of 150 has been sought. It was only in January
18th this year that the traffic branch of the state police had decided
to take punitive action against vehicles involved in overtaking and
imposing heavy fines on vehicles violating traffic rules and also those
breaking down in the middle of the road thereby causing traffic jams.
In
fact, there is a lack of total road planning and lack of vision by the
various successive governments all along the forty long years since the
achievement of Meghalaya statehood. There was no foresight and though
there were many other road connections which were already there besides
national highways 40 and 44, these were not taken up and developed.
It was only when the traffic situation
had reached an impossible to address point that these already existent
alternative road connections to Shillong were rediscovered. The Shillong
– Mairang to Kamrup in Assam, an already existent road, had been
neglected which could be an additional connection to Guwahati but the
successive governments failed to take advantage of this road which was a
route of the Khasi king U Tirot Sing of the Khasi state of Hima
Nongkhlaw.
The Nartiang – Mawlasynai – Nongpoh road, for instance,
connecting the Jowai region with the Ri Bhoi areas which was sanctioned
right from the year 2002 was not taken up in right earnest at an
estimated cost of Rupees 499.03 lakhs under the Rural Infrastructure
Development Fund. Suddenly, today, the government had discovered the
importance of this road, an important project which was abandoned, the
reason for which was that there was a lack of additional funds. Today,
the cost of completion of this strategic road has escalated to Rupees
6.45 crore. Recently, the Umkhen bridge along this road built at a cost
of rupees 4.99 crore was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
It is therefore pathetic that all along three years, this road was
abandoned in which the bulk of traffic coming from Tripura, Mizoram and
Cachar district of Assam could have passed through without any hindrance
through Jowai, Nartiang, Mawlasnai right up to Nongpoh. As it is today,
this road is not yet fit for plying of regular traffic yet the
government had ordered that all empty trucks coming from Guwahati should
avoid the national highyway 40 and ply from Mawlasnai – Nartiang road
even though the road is not yet traffic worthy and needs a lot of
improvement. An additional `16.22 crores will be needed to complete this
road and make it fit for the plying of all types of vehicles.
Another
important on – going project is the Shillong Bypass which would divert
from Lad Umroi – Umiam along national highway 40 to Mawryngkneng on the
national highway 44, being constructed at a cost of `1,220.35 crores
undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The
Shillong Bypass is expected to be completed by the year 2014 in which it
will considerably shorten the distance for vehicles going towards
Jowai, Mizoram, Tripura and Silchar.
The much awaited relief for Shillong’s
nightmare traffic woes rests in the conversion to four lane of the
Guwahati – Shillong national highway 40 up to Umiam which is 12 kms from
Shillong. The four lane road from Jorabad to Umiam, covering a distance
of 61.8 kms constructed at the cost of `753 crore is expected to be
completed very soon through there are certain hiccups regarding the road
at Umsning, a stretch of only 600 metres as to whether the road will
pass through Umsning village or take a circumvent road.
Shillong
has other communication outlets which have never been considered and
taken seriously by the government such as the Mawlai – Mawsiatkhnam –
Umroi airport road which connects the city to the Shillong Umroi
airport, reducing the time needed to reach the airport by 15 to 20
minutes against the present route along the Guwahati – Shillong road via
Lad Umroi which takes about 30 minutes. Already, an RCC bridge exists
over the river Umiam and this road needs only a few improvements of
widening and black topping and can be later called the VIP airport road.
Similarly, there is already an existing
road from Mawlai to Mawsiatkhnam to Nongtraw which needs only some
improvement of widening and black topping to serve the needs especially
of southeastern Ri Bhoi region. Vehicles coming from Guwahati to West
Khasi Hills can also divert from Umiam to Mawmaram onwards which also
needs only minimal improvement.
Why therefore the big question being
posed here were these alternative road connections to the state capital
not taken up and were left neglected? If taken up along these 40 years
since statehood, these could have spared the people of Shillong of this
present congestion. It is the fault of the planners and the politicians
who have failed to live up to the expectations of the people and also
the people themselves who had remained passive observers of what lies
beyond the horizon.
[Source - www.easternpanorama.in]
