City roads: True development index!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 19: Guwahati is an open book with ‘development indices’ seen here and there, everywhere! Be it the plight of city roads, availability of potable water, health facilities or streetlights; all of them speak volumes of development in the city, rather in the State as a whole. Being the capital city of Assam, the plight of this metropolitan city has much to do in telling anybody about development of the State.

Here is an important road – the road from Kahilipara to Lokhra via Dakshin Gaon and Soiguli. This road was seen dazzling people recently during the South Asian Games. Thanks to Dispur that can paint a rosy picture of anything when any big events take place in the State, or any important person visits it. No such touch that can give the road a facelift lift was given to this road even during the Games. The Game is over, so is the sheen of roads in the city. The falls in two Legislative Assembly Constituencies (LACs) – Dispur and West Guwahati. The neglect meted out to this road reminds one of the one-liner – everybody’s child is nobody’s child.   

Monsoon is still far away, but this road is mucky and potholed. Big crackers on this road are infamous for causing accidents. How come water make the road muddy in this season? There are drains on either side of the road only to let water flow over it. The dried stretches of the road are infamous for dust storms. People are seen on the road with masks. Cold and cough is the order of the day in the area. One can guess the would-be condition of the road during the monsoon. There are more reasons for people living on either side of the road and the areas nearby looking more woebegone. The road has no streetlights, and that let miscreants make the road their haven when it is dark.

The number of users of this road is large. Apart from the people living in the nearby areas, this road is used by people to reach Sarusajai, Maniram Dewan Trade Centre, ISBT etc. Besides a number of Government Lower Primary schools, this road leads one to Betkuchi High School, Don Bosco, Sankardev Vidyaniketan etc. It is needless to say how busy the road is. Over the past 15 years the Tarun Gogoi-led government in the State neglected many roads that are vital for smooth transportation in the city. Roads essentially are an index for development of a state or a country.

“As though to cap it all, the Guwahati Water Supply Project currently underway under the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has also spelt doom for the road. Those engaged in the project work dug out a side of the road and laid pipes, but left the road without properly repaired. Digging activities are taking place even now on the road. The lack of streetlights on the road makes it a hub of miscreants at night,” Hamid Ali, a local resident, said.