Travel season

 With festive season just round the corner, it will be four months of movement of people to and from Nagaland especially if the Hornbill Festival this year is to be held albeit some restrictions in view of Covid pandemic. Tourism in Nagaland, at least for the fun loving and thrill seeking visitor/tourist, is more about the Hornbill Festival which is evolving into a mega-carnival that gets more amplified with modern arts, crafts and music. Anyway, traditional arts or culture have their space and cannot claim all the space that tourism provides. Trade and tourism are highlighted by a very important denominator ‘T’–travel. In this regard, it may be mentioned that as the main gateway to Nagaland, connectivity to Dimapur with other states must meet the needs of people travelling to and from Dimapur by road, rail and air. The much touted four-lane expansion of the NH 29 between Dimapur to Kohima which began in 2016 was supposed to complete by 2018 but it is likely to be completed if at all, by 2022. This will make the construction among the longest time taken. Perhaps rampant extortion and kidnap of officers of construction firm are responsible for the delay but this alone cannot be the only factor. If it were so then no national highway in Manipur would have been completed. Moreover, highways in Manipur exhibit very high standard of workmanship. All these in a state that has been under bandhs, strikes, bombings, shootings etc for decades. Even roads linking Dimapur with Assam, till the inter-state check gates are well maintained. What is more, the national highways in Assam have attained the status of super highways; with most having expanded into four-lane and a few to six-lane. Except for national highways, all other roads in the state are maintained by the state government. Therefore, the objective to ensure smooth travel should be for the year through and to all districts and not only for the Hornbill Festival. Another important link is rail connectivity which is also a serious matter that needs to be addressed. Much has been written about the shabby deal meted to passengers travelling by trains to and from Dimapur. It needs to be reminded, that Dimapur station(though not a junction like Lumding) is the second highest revenue earner for the NF Railways after Guwahati. The Nagaland Express between Dimapur and Guwahati, introduced in 2012, was initially promising but gradually turned into a passenger express with several stops added between Dimapur and Guwahati. There is need to provide more quota in Rajdhani Express to cater to the growing demands. More trains with convenient timings would help a great deal in facilitating train travel. The other aspect is air connectivity between Dimapur and other states. Air connectivity will improve once the airport is brought to the standard of Dibrugarh, Guwahati etc. Dimapur airport handles hundreds of passengers even from nearby Assam. The volume will increase if the airport is developed but this needs the state government’s participation. Unless the state government takes interest to resolve the demands of land owners for expansion of the airport so as to create necessary infrastructures and facilities, the airport will gradually be reduced to a feeder point for Guwahati. The state government should realise that Hornbill Festival is only a part of tourism and unless road, rail and air connectivity are improved, other states will surpass Nagaland in tourism.