Town Planning and Imphal city
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 14 , 2014 -

It was heartening to note that the Chief Minister promised to complete re-construction work of Sanjenthong Bridge ahead of the annual calendar event Manipur Sangai Tourism Festival, 2014. It appears the Chief Minister is keeping a close tab on the work progress.

Here we would like to remind the Chief Minister that he has hardly seven months to construct the bridge as the annual calendar event is scheduled from November 21.

Certainly, a Government can construct a bridge within six/seven months, provided it has the required political will.

The Chief Minister also went on record dismissing all public complaints of inconveniences caused by closure of the city’s busiest bridge.

The Chief Minister was right. There are enough alternative routes/bridges that connect Imphal West and Imphal East but the Government has a habit of putting the cart before the horse.

It was after the Sanjenthong bridge was already closed that the approach road to Thumbuthong Bridge was repaired.

Again, the Government is notorious for not keeping its own words, specially with regard to meeting completion deadlines of construction projects.

BT Road was/is one of the busiest road passing through the heart of Imphal city.

Remember how long half the breadth of BT Road was closed during construction of BT Flyover of which completion deadline was extended not once or twice but many times.

Public have a very sour experience of the Government as far as construction projects and their completion targets are concerned.

Lack of political will and systematic town planning are conspicuous by their absence. Imphal city is virtually a victim of misguided policy and lack of planning and vision.

Imphal city, for myriad reasons, is characterised by pollution, littering garbage, stinky air and clogged drains, without any organised form of life.

The first mistake is that the successive Governments’ vision of Imphal is smaller than its actual territorial space. For them, Imphal begins from the secretariat building and ends at the Khwai Bazaar circle.

It is because of such vision that most of the beautification plan is confined in this area only. Secondly Imphal City is the three-in-one centre.

First, Imphal is a centre of political power where important Government offices are located. Second it is also the biggest commercial centre of the State and a ritual and spiritual centre where you have the Kangla, Tikendrajit Park, Mapal Kangjeibung.

How can we dream of a city free from congestion and noise pollution where inhabitants can have a liberating sense when three important centres are merged in a single territorial space?

Rather than formulating appropriate policy and planning to change the status quo, what we see is attempt at consolidating the status quo. All the important centres/offices such as Kangla, Mapal Kangjeibung, Governor’s Residence and Office, State secretariat, Chief Minister’s bungalow, quarters of MLA’s, Judges, State Assembly, many banks (SBI, UBI, ICICI, Punjab National Bank, UBI, MSCB, AXIS etc.), are located within the three Kilometre radius of this area.

Besides, national highways pass right in the heart of Imphal city.

Can anyone tell us, which modern city has the reflection of unplanned and unsystematic order as Imphal does today?

All these have made the area an awkward mosaic, a zone of hell for all of us. Therefore we have here a city without planning.

It is therefore no surprising to see that all roads lead to this point.

But until the policy planners take up certain radical steps and adopt a qualitative outlook, Imphal City and its core zone i.e Khwai bazaar area will soon become more congested, chaotic and suffocating for its dwellers.

The need of the hour is systematic town planning based on a sound policy, formulated not on the basis of intention but on the basis of findings after systematic, scientific and surgical research and surveys of the issues, problems and facts and materials surrounding them.

As for the new Sanjenthong, people would not mind much the present inconvenience for they can foresee a bigger, congestion free bridge.

The only question is, can the Government meet the completion deadline.