Sewerage Project: 10 years in the making :: Sorrow of Imphal
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 20, 2013 -

PHED Minister Hemochandra supervising at the site on March 18 2013 :: Pix - TSE

First phase, second phase, third phase. Primary, secondary and tertiary.

More than 10 years in the making and nothing substantive yet to show that something has been accomplished. The Imphal Sewerage Project may well fit the description of Sorrow of Imphal.

But then this should not come as too big a surprise in a place where projects have been inaugurated with nothing to show that it is anywhere ready to be thrown open to the public.

The Inter-State Bus Terminus and the City Convention Centre are two examples that come to mind. Add the inauguration of a multi-purpose project, the Khuga Multi-Purpose Project, sans the power component and the circle is complete.

Take the assurance of PHED Minister I Hemochandra that the first phase of the Sewerage Project will be completed before the onset of the rainy season, against the backdrop of the examples quoted above, and one may not be pilloried for taking this with a pinch of salt.

In the construction stage for more than a decade now and there are just not enough words to put to ink the severe inconveniences that the people of Imphal have been subjected to all these years.

Dig out portions of the road, cover it up, dig up again. This has been the defining aspect of the Imphal Sewerage Project and there is nothing as yet to suggest that things will improve.

On the contrary the chaos and confusion that will prevail once the secondary or the second phase of the project is taken up can only be imagined.

Secondary phase will cover the leiraks or the lanes and by lanes of Imphal and the digging, filling and digging again exercises that will follow will only give a more sinister twist to the understanding of inconveniencing the public.

Development comes with a price. This is for sure. But when the price has to be paid due to the inefficiency and lethargy and lack of purpose of the Government agencies then it is time to draw the line.

The Imphal Sewerage Project has already done more than its share of inconveniencing the public. This much is true.

Dusty when it is dry and slushy when it rains. This has been the defining aspect of Imphal in the last many, many years. The Sewerage Project has only managed to make things worse.

After more than 10 years, roads continue to be cut off and nowhere is this more evident than in Thangmeiband Assembly Constituency. The sit-in-protest staged by the locals demanding speedy completion of the project some days back should be seen in its correct perspective.

It was a voice of protest against a project which has already extracted a heavy price from the people of the locality.

It was a protest against the seeming indifference of the Government to a project which has been there at the stage of construction for over 10 years. Deadline.

Obviously the importance of deadline has not registered in the consciousness of the Government at all and palpable in this is the indifference of the people who matter.

All work, any project, any development plans that are worked out should come within a time frame.

And if deadlines are continuously defeated, if time frames are there only on paper, then it says something very significant about the work ethics of the Government and its officials.

By any standard, 10 years is a long time.

It is a decade and in this age many things can happen within a period of 10 years. This however has blown over the heads of the people helming the Imphal Sewerage Project.

The PHED Minister has assured that the first phase of the project will be over before the onset of the rainy season. In a few months the answer will be out in the open.

As for the secondary stage, no one seems to know or have not cared to study. The third stage is anyone’s guess.