BRO out, NHCCL in; a happy tiding?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 09, 2014 -

It is indeed a welcome step for the entire North East region which is connected to mainland India by the Silliguri corridor, just 22 Kms wide, rightly called the Chicken Neck.

It's like seeing a ray of light at the end of a very, very long tunnel.

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) represents the metaphor 'tunnel' while the ray of light represents the new agency christened the National Highways Connectivity Company Limited (NHCCL).

It has been several decades BRO is kept in charge of National Highways in Manipur.

During these long decades, BRO has deservedly earned such epithets like inefficacy, incapability, indifference and what not.

For BRO even three decades are not enough to construct a standard highway.

One need not go far to prove it.

Just look at Imphal-Jiribam highway.

Both the State Government and the people of Manipur have lost all their faith in BRO and they are frustrated at the manner BRO is working/idling on NH 37 (Imphal-Jiribam highway).

Having stretched its patience to the limits, the State Government made a strong move last year to relieve the BRO off its responsibility of looking after national highways in Manipur.

Even though the Ministry of Defence supported the State Government's move, the Ministry of Home Affairs, for reasons best known to them, was adamant on keeping the national highways under BRO.

Now a new Government is at the helm of affairs and it has struck the right chord by setting up the NHCCL exclusively for the North East.

People from other parts of the country and beyond would be wonderstruck on hearing that it takes almost 16 to 18 hours to travel a little over 200 Kms in a motor vehicle from Imphal to Jiribam or the other way round in this cyber age.

Indeed it is a nightmare to travel along this highway, nay route and for drivers it is always a tortous journey.

Strangely, successive Governments at New Delhi find it unnecessary to improve connectivity with the landlocked North East in general and the remotest State of Manipur in particular.

The sudden change of mind and realization of the crucial importance of connectivity on the part of New Delhi mandarins is a windfall for the people living in this artificially isolated region of the country.

We don't think one needs any reminder that connectivity is the catch word in this cyber age whether it is for trade and commerce, cultural exchange, diplomatic engagement or simply people to people contact.

But what we see today on the so called on the Imphal-Jiribam highway is a cart-track of 18th century.

By keeping Manipur isolated from all directions except the not so reliable and perennially insecure Imphal-Dimapur highway and of course the air connectivity which is virtually restricted to movement of people, the notion that Manipur constitutes just a buffer zone from the security perspective of New Delhi has been hardened all the more.

In the so called democratic political set up of India, Manipur finds no place except as a buffer zone or a neo-colony.

The assumption that Manipur constitutes a buffer state or more precisely a neo-colony of India is hardened by New Delhi's insidious policy of keeping Manipur remote as far as possible, observed one popular columinist.

We hope the Narendra Modi Government, through the newly constituted NHCCL, can infuse hope and change things on the ground.

The Government of India must acknowledge that there is physical as well as psychological gap or rather disconnect between Hindi-speaking mainland India and the North East region.

This gap was consolidated over the years by the limited connectivity the region has with the rest of the country.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari's assurance that development works of Imphal-Jiribam highway and Imphal-Dimapur highway would be taken up on war footing from October this year sounded like manna from heaven and we hope it would not turn into some impressive but empty promises.

Now, the people of Manipur pins their hope on the new Government and the new agency NHCCL.