T. Meren Paul
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]oothill Road at last! We are happy to go near half reality that the state government has made placement of fund for construction of the foothill road and accordingly a committee has been appointed to decide upon the alignment of the road connecting Tizit to Dimapur with further extension to Peren. At last the State Government has woken from the long 50 years slumber breaking the old twenty years slumber record of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch settler in the foothill of Catskill Mountain near New York, after all records are made to be broken. By the way Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has made the most record history in all format of the cricket so much so that Chief Minister Rio who incidentally is the President of Nagaland Cricket Association is going to make the most record (mind you not in cricket) in political history of Nagaland in completing 3 consecutive term, 15 years uninterrupted rule of the state as Chief Minister.The foothill road from Dimapur to Tizit is long felt need beginning from day one of the Nagaland becoming the 16th State of India. We are going to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the statehood in couple of weeks time but it is a shame that in the long 50 years period of time (half a century) the state could not build the most essential road communication that would connect the Northern part of Nagaland (Tizit in Mon District) to South-Western part of Nagaland (Dimapur) and Peren traversing through six districts. At the time of Statehood Mon, Dimapur, Longleng and Peren were all Sub-Divisions only but today they all have become District but sadly, still remaining unconnected internally except via Assam. Since statehood, right from the Interim Body, governments have come and gone but none give a damn about the most essential road communication required by the State. Few politicians (past PWD Ministers) have taken up the matter at their Departmental level and infused some fund here and there but never has any concerted whole hearted steps seems to have been taken by the State Government with the convenient alibi that the Government of Assam have raised objection to construction of the foothill road. Nor the stake holder public have at any time seriously taken up the matter with the Government except submission of token representation now and then for the sake of doing it but as luck would have it through an accidental stroke it was finally sparked into serious spontaneous action from all the districts as collateral response to the bandh launched by the Ao Senden as the ember.
Although at the end of the day State Government on predicament has finally made the much awaited decision for construction of the foothill road yet at the initial stage it did not show sufficient willingness and eagerness thus the reluctant attitude of the government amply indicates it was not on state priority list. Consequent upon the announcement of the sanctioning of the foothill road, there were demands and claims gearing up as matter of right from different section of people that the foothill road should cover their village/areas. One politician even demanded that the foothill road should cross all the villages in his constituency. Such public demands are indicative of lack of road connectivity and development in these areas hence the clamor when they see the only opportunity coming their way once in lifetime.
The Committee appointed by the state Government might have made spot visits of the existing foothill road and by now must be expounding on some possible alternatives of the road profile alignment. One wonders what principle the Committee is adapting in choosing the alignment but the basic principle should be based considering the foothill road to be the “State Trunk Road” and not inter village link road. It should have the shortest possible stretches/length of road so that travel time is reduced considerably that automatically will also reduce the cost of travel. It should be also made as straight as possible by laying bridges, terrain box cutting, even tunnel wherever required to avoid meandering and serpentine road profile caused by merely following the surface topography.
The objective should not be merely road connectivity but it should also focus on the shortest possible road so as to meet or counter any state of emergency such as movement of serious patients, troops, relief materials etc, etc to reach the destination at the shortest possible time.
In all fairness the foothill road should maintain the road profile within the foothill region as the name implies and should not try to venture towards uphill regions where the road will encounter all kinds of problem of heavy earth cuttings, landslides, subsidence and avoidable road gradient. The existing alignment from Tizit to Tuli Paper Mill (NPPC) which I have travelled number of times seems to be a good alignment except that it should be straightened up cutting the meanderings and should veer westward to exit near the Tuli Train Station avoiding the present exit through the center of the Paper Mill as this road is constructed as Industrial Feeder Road of NPPC.
In the Japukong range the foothill road requires a totally new alignment right from the outskirt of Yachang C to near about Tzudapela Gate. The engrain soil strata of most of the Japokong range is sandy soil and shall not support a Trunk Road if the existing road constructed by the Boarder Road is followed for the foothill road, soil erosion by surface water runoff and process of attrition being very high. Therefore the same nature of road profile taken up along the foothill from Tizit to Tuli Paper Mill should be followed in the Japukong range too. I have not widely travelled in the Lower Ranges of Lotha areas but the same foot hill profile should be uniformly applied as a matter of propriety from Tizit to Dimapur-Peren.
The foothill road should not try to connect villages at any compromise but should maintain purely as a Trunk Road and avoid any kind of hamlet and villages unless indispensable. The villages at the periphery should be provided with usual feeder road to the Trunk Road. Wherever Trunk Road comes up there is a natural tendency to grow ribbon development along the road in course of time but immediate need of ancillary of the Trunk Road should be roadsides amenities for the traveler and truckers alike in appropriate places. It is common phenomena that earlier concept of trunk road passing through the settlement was a wrong application that has created un-surmountable traffic problems letting to creation of city bypass in all the city/towns at high cost in the present day. The committee need not rush with the finalization of the road alignment as we are already 50 years late therefore few months time taken in working out a correct and fitting alignment won’t make any difference now. Take good time to choose the best possible alignment.
We should make the best use of the dictum “Better late than never” and learn from other’s mistakes but borrow the best practice from others to make our Foothill Road the best Trunk Road in the country. Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Do not disturb your enemy when he is making mistake” For us fellow countrymen nobody would like to see any mistake.
