TSE BT Flyover 20071130

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Editorial of the week

BT Flyover - A concrete example

Courtesy: The Sangai Express 1st December, 2007

The Congress led SPF Government may like the people to believe that the inauguration of the BT Flyover is an achievement and while we do grant that this is the first flyover in the State and hence significant, it would be naive on the part of the Government to expect the people to trumpet it as an achievement.

An impartial and an objective look at the history of the construction of the BT Flyover will leave no one in doubt that the concrete structure in the middle of the commercial centre in Imphal is a reflection of all Government projects moving in slow motion.

In other words, it will stand as a history of the ineffectiveness of the Government to complete anything in time.

When the plan for the Flyover was first unveiled, it was supposed to stretch upto near the traffic island just behind the Kangla Gate but as things stand today, the length of the Flyover has been whittled down considerably.

Again, it is not very clear whether the Flyover is a two laned road or a single laned road, though officially it is supposed to be the former.

Dr. SS Sidhu inaugurating the BT Flyover

Moreover remember there is no footpath, which means that either pedestrians will not be allowed to walk over the Flyover or else traffic chaos will become the order of the day with vehicles and humans trying to make their way through the congested Flyover.

Talk about planning or the lack of it and it is all there packaged and neatly presented in the first flyover of the State.

That it has taken much longer than the period of construction envisaged before may no longer stir the people's ire, used as they are to the sloppiness of the Government, but the dust and the hellish experience that one underwent while travelling along the Uripok road, will perhaps linger longer.

While the completion of the Flyover is welcome and a relief, it should not be taken as the yardstick of any achievement, but should be seen as the collective sigh of relief of the common people, that at least there will not be dusty road along the Uripok road !

The BT Flyover is one just example of the rot that has besieged Imphal during the last few years.

Today there is not even a single road, which can fit the bill of a road befitting a road in the capital of a State. In fact so low is the people's expectation of the Government that any stretch of smooth road (that is if they exist) without potholes, is sure to spring a few surprises.

The grand Imphal Sewerage Project is another factor that has added to the discomfiture of the people in Imphal. We do agree that a price has to be paid for any developmental works that are taken up but surely with a little more planning and co-ordination between the different arms of the Government the inconveniences thrown up by the Sewerage Project can be minimised to a large extent.

We wonder what is stopping the Public Works Department from repairing the dug out road, as soon as the pipe laying business by the PHED is over. Or are there some technicalities to be followed ?

If yes, it would be nice to enlighten the public about it.

The bottomline is the fact that Imphal today is no more than a shanty town, with all the characteristics of a large, unmanned slum. Certainly the capital of a State can do much better than what we are witnessing now.

Is anyone listening ?

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