The North East Olympics games are on and some game venues are located in Mawlai Mawroh where a road that was started at least three years ago remains incomplete in many parts leading to dust rising and polluting the games venue located just by the side of the road. The police stationed there are covered in a cloud of dust each time a car passes by. This is inhuman to say the least. Road construction in Meghalaya and in the city of Shillong in particular seems to take a longer than necessary gestation period. This is all due to lack of monitoring and the lack of respect and adherence to a timeline. The central government that funds the projects does not really care about setting up timelines within which a particular road project is to be completed and of monitoring the quality of the roads. The Shillong to Dawki project is now kept on suspended animation and no one is really sure how many more years this will take. The problem is the long-suffering citizens of Meghalaya who continue to remain silent despite suffering the consequences of traveling on bad roads.
During his recent visit to Assam and other North Eastern states, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari at several public meetings announced new projects amounting to Rs 1.6 lakh crores of which Meghalaya will be receiving about Rs 5000 crores. At the 2nd Convocation of the Royal Global University, Guwahati, Gadkari said money is never a problem. The problem is delay in decision making. Gadkari could have added delay in project completion. The Union Minister skipped Meghalaya during his visit else he could have been taken to some of the places with the worst road conditions within Shillong city. States like Tripura and Assam being BJP-ruled of course receive maximum attention but to the credit of Assam work on several road projects have been progressing at an appreciable pace. An example is the 6-lane road to the airport. Gadkari of course also stated that the land acquisition process of all development work has to be expedited. In this aspect Meghalaya is a slow coach because land acquisition also means different agents and middle men making money from land owners especially villagers.
The road to Jowai begins to deteriorate after Mawryngkneng and gets worse closer to Ummulong. With trucks carrying more than the permitted capacity being allowed to pass by without any checks and balances the quality of roads are bound to deteriorate. Recently the bridge at Dwar Ksuid started giving way. Is the MDA Government really serious about road communication and above all the quality of the roads being constructed. A better question should be – Are the people of Meghalaya happy with their roads?
