Monsoon Brings Familiar Chaos: Need for Alternative Routes in Nagaland

Hundreds of trucks carrying food items, perishable vegetables, medical supplies and other essential goods were stranded between Dimapur and Kohima for days together around this time last year after multiple landslides and rock falls cut off the traffic on the crucial National Highway-29. The landslide-prone area near the old Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) dumping site is affected this year too, while a massive landslide near Kisama completely cut off Kohima-Mao Road (NH-2) for weeks, forcing the people to use Phesama bypass as an alternative route. This has become like a yearly event, especially during the monsoon season, akin to floods in Assam and Dimapur, but no tangible action has been taken so far to address this recurring problem. What we have been doing all these years is waiting for the rainy season to pass, only to be reminded of our inaction and apathy at regular intervals at the cost of public inconvenience, damage to property and even loss of human lives. So, it came as a relief when Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio told the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) during the inspection of the landslide-affected areas to come up with a permanent fix to the recurring issue, including construction of Concrete Canvas (CC) check dams and use of iron reinforcements to prevent erosion. NHIDCL, the implementing agency of this crucial highway as well as several other road projects in the state, should maintain workmanship and implement advanced technologies to tackle frequent landslides and mudslides. Taking the topography and difficult terrains into consideration, preventive measures like improved drainage, slope stabilisation, retaining and breast walls, soil nailing, construction of support structures and restriction of development activities in landslide-prone areas are imperative to mitigate landslide risks.

It’s an irony that the much-hyped Dimapur-Kohima four-lane road and the NH-2 projects are still not completed while the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways boasts of constructing nearly 10,000 km of National Highways in the North East at a cost of over INR 1.07 lakh crore between 2014 and 2024. The efforts made in providing rail connectivity to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland (read Kohima) and Manipur are commendable, but the same can’t be said about the road network. The fact that any damage to the NH-29 and NH-2 disrupts the supply of essential goods and commodities to several Nagaland districts and the state of Manipur speaks volumes about the so-called enhanced road connectivity in the region. So, it is essential to identify and develop alternative routes to ensure that economic activities, supply chains and businesses are not affected. It is reported that the government of Manipur is planning two alternate routes: Dimapur – Peren – Maram – Imphal and Dimapur – Kohima – Chakabama – Ukhrul – Imphal to ensure that essential supplies to Manipur are not affected. Meanwhile, the government of Nagaland is also said to have proposed an alternative route via Chakhabama-Kidima-Senapati to the Centre. The Modi government should seriously consider these proposals, as good road connectivity is crucial for emergency response besides fostering economic growth in the region.