Metro Rail

The fate of the Guwahati Metro Rail project as depicted in a front-page news item in The Sentinel in its August 21, 2019 issue reminds the literati one of the famous poems of Navakanta Barua, a poet of unquestionable repute. A faithful English rendering of the original Assamese poem by veteran journalist and litterateur DN Bezboruah reads –

Measurements

It is evening now.

Let’s go to the tailor’s to get measured.

Measurement of neck chest hands and arms

Measurement of the thumb.

We shall give measurement of the palm and the heart,

The entrails, the spleen and the liver.

Give count of hormones and love.

Let us give measurement of life

Of this and that and various things.

Only give the measurements.

We shall think of the stitching later on.

For the time being let’s just give measurements.

... ... ... ...

Just give measurements.

We shall think of the stitching later on.

Only think.

Someone after us will measure anew

Saying that our measurements were all wrong.

Fresh measurements they will take.

When will someone stitch the garment to fit Man?

This poem and The Sentinel news item depict a very common picture as to how various projects, including some developmental ones, are left to their fate in Assam. Dispur sees governments coming and going, and each of the outgoing governments at the fag-end (as depicted by the word ‘evening’ in the poem) is found to be in haste to lay a few foundation stones of projects with scant regard to their feasibility. They take to such gimmickries only to make it to Dispur for the next term, and in the process they deal a blow to the State exchequer – the taxpayers’ money. With a view to befooling the voters such governments spend a few crores of taxpayers’ money in the name of some costly surveys and studies (as depicted by the word ‘measurements’ in the poem) even as they know it well that the project they are spending money for is not going to see the light of the day. They spend money from the State exchequer for such ‘fake’ surveys and studies even as they are well aware of the fact that their successors will find faults with the entire project (as they cannot complete the project within their term) and conduct such surveys and studies anew, spending crores of money from the same public exchequer.

In the instant case, as reported in The Sentinel news item, the former Congress government at Dispur at its fag-end laid the foundation stone of Guwahati Metro Rail allegedly skipping a number of steps like surveys and studies on the feasibility of the project. The alleged lapses on the part of the last Congress government have rendered the works of the project already done waste of the public money, compelling the new dispensation at Dispur to do everything of the project afresh. The present dispensation at Dispur has also evinced its interest of going ahead with the project at a time when it has less than two years of its term. It is as clear as daylight that in the remaining less than two-year period the BJP-led government at Dispur can do precious little of the Guwahati Metro Rail project. Thus the picture is crystal clear that if the present government is to complete the time-taking project, it has to make it to Dispur for the second or the third consecutive term. It’s well and good if the project sees the light of the day in a single term. However, if it cannot, it is certain that its successors will find a lot of faults with the works set to be done by this government, and start doing everything of the project anew, right from feasibility studies and a whole lot of surveys regarding traffic movement and mapping of the rail corridors. Hope not the Guwahati Metro Rail project reruns the same course and gets lost in such an uncertain situation as to what poet Navakanta Barua says ‘When will someone stitch the garment to fit Man?’ Will Dispur really give Assam a metro rail?

Also Read: Metro Rail a Gimmick or a Reality?

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