By Louis Pyngrope
It is mandatory for the Government of the day or the incoming government to plan our new Shillong to the level that it becomes free from all the defects of the old Shillong. It is a clear indication that our existing Government is randomly allotting land for construction of the Legislative Assembly building, Reid Chest Hospital, etc., without following a master plan for the New Shillong Township. As of now, New Shillong is still at an unplanned stage and it is natural for us to anticipate that it will continue growing organically without any constraint on its growth and ultimately it will be exactly like the Old Shillong with all the defects of an unplanned city. If we start planning and implementing, it is still not late even if any new additions to the Master Plan were done without proper thought and planning.
Government must be farsighted enough to invest on infrastructure by purchasing adequate land to construct an international airport, a state University, State of the art Stadium and Gymnasium with provision for Bicycle racing, a Botanical Garden where we can showcase different varieties of rare and exotic flowers with medicinal roots and plants, an Agricultural University, State of the Art Museum with separate units for Science and Technology, State of the Art Medical College, Zoo or Safari, etc. With its scenic beauty, the New Shillong should be exceptionally beautiful and not difficult to fulfil all the criteria of a Smart city. It is important to construct at least two to three State of the Art childrens’ parks with Water Sports facilities in them and parking areas for the safety and security of the vehicles. There should be a standard museum for exhibiting museum pieces with provision for future expansion. May I also suggest swimming pools for different age categories and the one for training divers be constructed with nominal fees for membership to children, young boys, girls and adults. The one for trainees should be made entry free to encourage young swimmers from our state to be trained by expert/s engaged by the government for the same. This effort will not be in vain. People will praise our concerned government and our youths will shine in both national and international competitions and hence this will be a boon to our state. If such a facility is extended to our youths, in no time, our state will be showered with laurels for champions. The Sports minister looking after such departments will be garlanded and then very soon there will be imitation by other states in India as well. The above-mentioned facilities will definitely attract tourists who will contribute to the income generation of the citizens of our state.
Again, plans can be made to include trams plying over the whole city. As a special attraction to tourists, arrangements can be made for funiculars to ply at some places where there is presence of beautiful gardens/ Waterfalls/ Parks at the hilltop. Also, ropeways may be planned for the tourists visiting both Old and New Shillong.
The major defects of the existing New Shillong lies in its unplanned stage and the other defects lie on the unforeseen circumstances of our state, based on the Government’s financial capability. The present government has tried to promote Tourism by organising the Cherry Blossom festival and spent crores of rupees but with negligible infrastructure set up for such festivals such as hotels, home stays, and other facilities for tourists to enjoy their visits.
The traffic jam in Shillong is a very serious concern; it will deter tourists from visiting our state as their visits will not be worth the facilities available to them. No efforts were made by the past and existing governments to solve these problems by building flyovers. Further, the electronics traffic signal system is the best tool to regulate traffic in various parts of the world but not so in our state where it was withdrawn after running for a brief period. As educated citizen we are also responsible for blindly accepting the traffic signal without understanding why this technology failed in our state. This technology is still accepted with pride even by advanced civilisations of the world. We fear further that with the sets of legislators that we have or new legislators with similar calibre, there is no hope for us to see such facilities in a planned New Shillong as the new technology may still be irrelevant to them and therefore may not see the light of day. Till date, there is still no better system adopted by our state for our benefit, as our legislators have low mental calibre who still do not agree with the benefits accepted by the rest of the world.
It is essential for our government to make 4-lane roads from the central point of New Shillong to its surroundings so that traffic congestion can be avoided in future, taking into consideration the existing rate of increase of vehicles registered within our state. A similar 4-lane road may also be constructed for returning towards the centre. One may think that such an idea is irrelevant for a small city like Shillong but we cannot rule out its benefits when we see lesser traffic jams on our roads 50 years from now. It is high time for our government to come out with a permanent solution to ease the existing traffic congestion in our Old Shillong (which was not planned since its inception) as this really affects the life of the common man. I still believe that our government has not done any research on the failure of the electronics traffic signal which was operational for a short period in Shillong. So, there is no reason for us to raise any objection in the near future when we will be branded as the poorest in understanding the effectiveness of new technology for the benefit of the citizens of our state. We always take decisions in a hurry without thinking of the pros and cons which in turn invites criticism from everywhere.
I have seen how effective the electronics traffic signals system implemented on similar roads with similar intensity of traffic during rush hours in other states of India. Recently, I visited Scotland and was convinced that there are also many narrow roads with as many vehicles plying on them like ours and the electronic traffic signals used were excellent with no problems faced as complained by the public in our state. From here I could sense that the defects of the failure of electronics traffic signals in Shillong are purely because of the sub-standard software used during its implementation. There was no restriction on parking of vehicles on one side of the road, no restriction on the speed of plying vehicles, no restriction on taxi drivers who randomly halted their vehicles to pick up passengers anywhere they like on the road, etc. May we now request our traffic department to consult experts from other states to get themselves trained and request them to provide good customised software for effective implementation of electronics traffic signals system?
Again, when I was doing my research from the documentaries on the operation of electronics traffic signals in European countries, I found that the electronics traffic signals were working perfectly on similar narrow roads with more or less same traffic intensity with a little extra traffics like electric trams, funiculars, cyclists, skate riders, etc.
So with our experiences so far in the existing unplanned old Shillong, our government should see that those same mistakes are not repeated in the planned new Shillong. Of course, traffic congestion is our major problem in Old Shillong; we would like to see that our new Shillong is also free from other problems like narrow roads in residential areas, improper sewage system, river pollution etc. that we have faced so far. We now hope for a very well-planned New Shillong with no scope for it to be led astray so that we can feel proud forever. Now, we want good legislators to fulfil our expectations and hopefully our voting in a new set of legislators will be in accordance with a system followed by advanced civilisations of the world i.e. selecting both the personality and integrity of the candidate and the political party supporting him/her based on the ideology and commitment as highlighted in the manifesto.