Amid tall promises to beautify Imphal...
First signs of farce to follow appear
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 25 2010: Even before completion of placing light-reflecting devices (bileanator) on road/lane dividers at various points at the heart of the capital city, to keep motorists on the alert, some of the bileanators have already crumbled/popped out of the road surface.

Under the Imphal City beautification plan, these bileanators were inserted on the road at some specific areas of the capital.

With Imphal included among other major cities for beautification under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission (JNURM), the State PWD assigned the task to a work agency as a sub-contract.

Placing bileanators as lanes are considered an integral component of the city beautification plan, apart from its necessity as vehicular movement would be controlled through the traffic lighting system, for which trial run is being carried out.

The loopholes begin to show

According to a source in the PWD, the bileanators to be placed at various points of the capital city were provided by the Ministry of Urban Development.

substandard work quality might the chief factor for the devices falling apart at various points even before completing a month of its installation, the source informed.

Apart from its placement in the capital city for the time being, similar devices would be placed along the Imphal-Ukhrul, Imphal-Kangchup, Imphal-Yairipok and Imphal Airport roads, said the source.

The starting points for Yairipok road will be Palace Gate, Minuthong at Ukhrul, Naoremthong at Kangchup and upto Tulihal Airport for the Imphal Airport road.

It is also informed that the device has inbuilt solar energy storage system and that similar devices are common features at some bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and others.

For Imphal, the light emitting diode devices are likely to be installed at places such as near Raj Bhavan and CM's bungalow, where presence of security personnel is round the clock to ensure that the costly gadgets are not stolen.

The source also informed that the proposal placed to the Ministry of Road Transport and highways to convert National Highway 39 section from imphal to Maharabi and Imphal-Pallel to a four-lane highway has been approved with the Ministry including the proposal in its annual programme.

As a part of the road expansion project both sides of the road stretching from Thoubal upto Pallel has been dug-up to about 3 feet deep, the source added.

JNURM is another important project of the SPF Govt, which is primarily linked to urban management and maintenance of its assets, such as roads, drainage system, bridges etc.