Source: The Sangai Express / Jacob Panmei
Jiribam, October 17 2009:
The National Highway 53 which connects Silchar and Imphal has become a road less travelled upon due to apathy of the State Government and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) .
Apart from its pathetic condition, the Highway is also most vulnerable to frequent imposition of bandhs and blockades by every sundry social organisations espousing one cause or the other including family conflict.
On the other hand, 36 and 83 Bn BRTF entrusted to maintain the road from Silchar to Barak under Project Pushpak and from Barak to Keithelmanbi under Project Sewak respectively seem to have taken the task for granted with no visible sign of improvement in the road construction work.
One must not be surprised these days to see the BRTF labourers playing cards near the highway while the commuters carry spades and other tools for clearing landslides and repairing bridges, most of which are also on the verge of collapsing.
The apathy of the Government towards the National Highway 53 can also be gauged from the fact that the importance of this road is felt only when the National Highway 39 is obstructed.
When the futility of passing along National Highway 39 is well-known even to a layman where a vehicle requires to pay a huge amount of money as taxes, both legal and illegal, than while travelling through National Highway 52, a billion dollar question that can be asked now is why the Government is still unwilling to recognise the importance of National Highway 53 .