Ahead of the Sangai Festival : Meeting the deadline, this time
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 10 2015 -

Ahead of the Sangai Festival.

This time the State Government seems ready to meet the deadline.

Something which it could not do last year when the old Sanjenthong was dismantled some time in May 2014.

Fast forward to 2015 and this time the new bridge seems ready to be opened before the Sangai Festival.

Any time between November 17 and 20 is the information that The Sangai Express has received and this is indeed good news.

Remember Sanjenthong is the main connecting bridge between Imphal East and Imphal West and dismantling the old bridge meant that an important connecting point was snapped for a long, long time.

This meant that the people were greatly inconvenienced in their daily movement and this is something which can be gauged from the traffic diversions at various points.

So anyone having to move from any place in Imphal West to any place in Imphal East had to take the Minuthong route near BOC or go all the way to Dingku road, take the Lamlong bridge, pass Khurai or Lamlong and then proceed accordingly.

Or people had to take the Thumbuthong route on the side of Yaiskul or Moirangkhom.

This not only meant taking a longer route but also having to spend more money and resources.

This at a time when the price of fuel is high.

The issue is all that more acute when there is shortage of fuel and this happens quite often thanks to the blockades and bandhs along the National Highways.

This also meant that traffic had to be diverted and routes which normally would not have been that crowded suddenly became choc-a-bloc with vehicles.

Just to cite an example, vehicles which would move towards Sanjenthong for the onward journey to Imphal East from Nagamapal side had to be diverted to Khoyathong traffic point causing heavy rush along the route especially near the ABC Godown which may stretch up to the new Assembly complex.

The heavy rush means that vehicles had to be diverted towards DM College Gate at the traffic point at Khoyathong, causing immense inconveniences to the people, especially school going children.

For the class of people who come under the VVIP and VIP tags the new diversion may not have such an impact for they can whistle their way through the crowd, but it is the common people who felt the pangs of the diversion.

To think that a crucial linking point between the two districts of the capital had to be closed down for more than a year is pathetic.

This is all that more so given the fact that Sanjenthong is just a stone throw away from the official residence of the Chief Minister.

Tough to say whether any minute homework was done before the deadline was announced, but more than clear that the State Government pathetically failed to keep its word.