Let Imphal go with town planning : Time to look beyond Imphal
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 25 2018 -

The workshop was on Concept of Aerodrome Safeguarding, but Additional Chief Secretary MH Khan went beyond that and stressed on the need for town planning.

Town planning and aerodrome may not exactly be two sides of the same coin, but the link between the two cannot be dismissed, for what the airport feeds the town or city by way of bringing in air passengers or in taking away passengers to other parts of the country or world, is closely linked to how the passengers from the town or city reach the airport for departure.

In case of arrival it is about how the passengers proceed from the airport to the town or city.

With Manipur at the centre of the Act East Policy, the connection between Imphal airport and Imphal city cannot be overlooked and this is a point which should not blow over the heads of the Government while taking up any new project.

To focus on town planning, let it be clear that any project taken up anywhere in the State is bound to have an impact on Imphal and herein lies the importance of the Government to look beyond Imphal when any talk of town planning or city planning is held.

For example, any project taken up in say, Sekmai will have an impact on Imphal in the way vehicles move from the capital city to Sekmai town and vice versa.

Movement of people and goods and this is how it brings the people closer and this can go a long way in characterising a place.

In other words any project taken up in any town will have an impact on Imphal and vice versa.

This is where the Government of the day need to look at any project from the perspective of Manipur as a State.

Another example that can be quoted here is ISBT, which is located in the heart of Imphal city.

The state of ISBT is bound to have an impact on other towns, for it is from this place that buses and taxis pick up passengers for transportation to other places such as Ukhrul and drop them from Ukhrul to Imphal.

Here it is about movement of people and how smoothly can people move from Imphal to other towns certainly forms a major component of town planning.

And talking about ISBT there is now the need for the Government to look beyond this point and see if it can be shifted somewhere outside the heart of Imphal city.

Perhaps Imphal must the only State capital to have the ISBT in the heart of the city !

There is also the growing need for the Government to study how to expand Imphal horizontally for it makes absolutely no sense for everyone to proceed to Thangal Keithel, Paona Keithel, BT Road, Khwairamband bazar to shop for everything from needles to refrigerators.

For starters, start developing the vegetable markets at say Lamphel, located just in front of Shanker Talkies.

See if a similar market can come up just beyond Lamlong. How about developing another market at Koirengei ?

Shift the schools and Government offices which are located along Kanglapat road and at the busy places which have just been mentioned.

Such measures can go a long way in easing the traffic at the busy commercial centres of Imphal and such a move will certainly fall in line with the understanding of town planning. Ningol Chakkouba is next month.

Where the fish mela is held will go a long way in understanding how serious the Government is about easing traffic congestion in the heart of Imphal.