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]